Murderbot Show!

[olivermoss]

We have a first look at how Murderbot will look in the show and a release date of May 16th here.

I was wondering when it would come out, I figure'd we'd get trailers and stuff way more in advance of the show. Also, I think it was originally supposed to be out last fall?

I am looking forward to this, but also intend to just not engage in most online discussions about it. Talking here is fine, but elsewhere? oof. I already know how some of the drama is going to go, and also I've been in fandom long enough to know that people will find a way to be super upset at the show in some way that I never would have predicted.

Comments

[shipperslist]

(My only question is...why Alexander Skarsgård? Murderbot is very distinctly agender so it would've been nice to see a nonbinary/agender actor playing the part. Then again, that would've probably been Way Too Much Woke for some people.)

If I see Martha Wells' herself being happy with the result, I might even get AppleTV for this one...

[muccamukk]

My understanding was that AS was really interested in the part, and having him on the project was a way to get it made. But I'm not 100% on that.

[shipperslist]

Oh, understandable.

[olivermoss]

Murderbot was made by a corporation in a deregulated, fascist future. Honestly, he works for me as exactly the sort of appearance they'd engineer for a SecUnit. Whether the actor can pull off the character remains to be seen, but the actor's look suits the world building.

[muccamukk]

That's a really good point. Maybe still thinking of him as Brad from Generation Kill will have an upside.

[shipperslist]

That makes a lot of sense, yeah.

[white_aster]

Murderbot wants to know why the hell they put a huge bullseye on its helmet. It thinks it knows why but it just wants to hear it out loud....

I am...sort of tentatively looking forward to this. I really feel like they could mess this up in SO many ways, but...I hope they don't. I mean...he doesn't look like MY Murderbot, but in the same way the Mickey17 movie doesn't look like a terribly faithful adaptation of the Mickey7 book, I'm willing to give it a go on its own merits.

[olivermoss]

I like how de-humanized the helmet design is. Hopefully, the show is good

[white_aster]

...that is a good point!

[princessofgeeks]

I am really excited about this and hoping for the best.

[olivermoss]

Same! But even if it's not great, the show made me get caught up in the books and I am very happy I did

[muccamukk]

Oh god. Same re the drama. this is going to an absolute flashpoint, and I intend to avoid the wank as best I can.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it's going to be tricky. I get people projecting onto the MC, I do as well even if we are very different gender and sexuality-wise.

[mistressofmuses]

Yeah... while there are some aspects I'm skeptical of, I want to see how the show actually is before I make any judgements, and even that is apparently a terrible position to take according to at least some of the fandom. I know Martha Wells seems to be pretty excited for it, which I think bodes well. This might be the thing that makes me get Apple TV for a while.

[olivermoss]

The armor and Murderbot's appearance make a lot of sense to me. It's all going to be in how the actor and director commit to certain things, mostly things that would start to happen in a season 2. But, apparently, the actor is a huge fan and is one of the forces behind getting this made. So, maybe?

Also, it's a lot easier to have a character without sex/procreation related body bits if you have an actor without boobs, especially with some of the battle damage it gets in book 1.

[mistressofmuses]

Part of my initial skepticism was admittedly about casting a white guy to play the character, since the book cast is so overwhelmingly not white, and I imagined Murderbot as being pretty deliberately androgynous. But finding out that he's such a fan of the series made me feel better about it, because it can mean a lot when the people involved in an adaptation really do like the source material and want to do well by it. So I'm cautiously optimistic.

I like the first look!

(And yes... definite reasons to avoid the boob situation, considering.)