Latest news with #MarthaWells
The Review Geek
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Murderbot Episode 5 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch
Murderbot Based on the award-winning, best-selling series by Martha Wells, Murderbot follows a rogue security unit that's self-hacked itself free of company restraints, only to find itself horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Played by Skarsgård, Murderbot is forced to hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe. If you've been following this one, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is releasing. Well, wonder no more! Here is everything you need to know about Murderbot episode 5, including its release date, time and where you can watch this. Where Can I Watch Murderbot? Murderbot is available to stream on AppleTV+. This is an exclusive original series, meaning this is the only place you're going to be able to watch this show. However, now that Apple is available as an extension on Amazon Prime Video, you can also get a subscription to AppleTV+ that way too! Murderbot Episode 5 Release Date Murderbot Episode 5 will release on Friday 6th June at approximately 12am (ET/PT) / 5am (GMT). Of course, it's really dependent on how quickly Apple upload new episodes. Expect this to be pretty close to the release time though. Murderbot Episode 5 is also available with subtitles from its release, with the chapter scheduled to clock in at 32 minutes long. How Many Episodes Will Your Murderbot Season 1 Have? Season 1 of Murderbot is scheduled for 10 episodes, so we've got 5 more episodes to go after this one. Expect the story to continue developing, with plenty of drama still to come! Is There A Trailer For Murderbot? There is indeed! You can find a trailer for Murderbot Season 1 below: What Happened in Episode 4? We'll have the whole episode covered with a lengthy recap that touches on all major plot points and discusses the chapter with an accompanying review. You can find that link below after release: Read more: Murderbot – Episode 4 Recap & Review What do you hope to see as the series progresses? What's been your favorite moment of Murderbot so far? Let us know in the comments below!
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Murderbot' Uses the Fake TV Series Trope So Perfectly
If you've been watching Murderbot on Apple TV+—and if you haven't, time to get started; episode four drops Friday!—you've no doubt picked up on one of the main character's most charming quirks: it's addicted to the galaxy's trashiest TV. That might seem like an unlikely time-waster for a self-aware security robot that's secretly hacked its consciousness and gained free will. But Murderbot's SecUnit loves nothing more than using its high-tech capabilities to consume thousands of hours of sci-fi soap operas, especially The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. It's a trait written into the Martha Wells source novel All Systems Red, the first of her Murderbot Diaries series, but the Apple TV+ show has had a delightful time expanding that part of the story so far. The show-within-a-show features some recognizable faces from other genre shows (including Star Trek's John Cho and Agents of SHIELD's Clark Gregg, deliberate casting choices). And while Sanctuary Moon's neon-drenched space travels are far campier than Murderbot's day-to-day routine alongside a human survey team on a desolate planet, the fictional hijinks seen on Sanctuary Moon actually influence the character in making some high-stakes choices. The shows it binges—it's also a fan of other titles, including World Hoppers, Med Center Argala, and Strife in the Galaxy, which it deems 'not premium quality like Sanctuary Moon, but still fun'—also help shape Murderbot's perspective on humans, as well as its interactions with them. Even those on his team who don't openly disdain Sanctuary Moon would be surprised to realize how often he peppers lines from the show into conversations. Though in-universe TV shows are used to particularly good effect on Murderbot, the use of a 'show within a show' in tandem with the main narrative is a familiar trope. It's fun to be fans of characters who also happen to be huge fans of things—think Community's knowingly blatant Doctor Who rip-off, Inspector Spacetime. Good-natured self-parody is welcome, too, like when Stargate SG-1 went behind the scenes of Wormhole X-Treme!, a suspiciously familiar series created by a former Stargate operative who'd had his memory (mostly) erased. On Twin Peaks, most TVs were tuned into Invitation to Love, an exaggerated version of the sort of nighttime soap opera Twin Peaks used as its own foundational springboard. There can also be fake TV shows that exist to remind you how great it is that they don't actually exist. Black Mirror's season six episode 'Joan Is Awful' followed a woman who realizes her rather unexciting life is being made into a TV show against her wishes—then discovered she's wrapped up in a simulation with so many layers it's hard to see where reality actually starts and ends. Similarly, Channel Zero's first season, Candle Cove, concerned a long-forgotten kid's program that broadcasts its way into reality to torment its former viewers as troubled adults. Fake TV shows have also made their way into movies, with Galaxy Quest representing maybe the greatest and funniest example of sci-fi fandom taken to the extreme. The 1999 cult comedy imagines a Star Trek-like show that aliens misinterpret as being real life, leading them to enlist its aging, disgruntled stars to help them fight an intergalactic battle. Hilarity ensues, as do some very unlikely heroics. Last year, another exploration of just how large a single TV show can loom came in I Saw the TV Glow, an eerie fantasy about two friends who bond over their obsession with eerie fantasy series The Pink Opaque. The events of the show come to influence and infiltrate their adult lives, and the end result explores not just the magic of fandom, but also how the strong grip of nostalgia can become twisted into something uneasy and dangerous. Murderbot doesn't dig that deeply. It's focused on entertaining the hell out of you, and in that it succeeds. But there's more to The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon than gaudy costumes and facial hair. It adds some welcome visual texture to a show that spends a lot of time inside its main character's mind. It's a reminder to ignore anyone who snarks on the stuff you happen to like. And it's a testament to the power of sci-fi, made even more enjoyable when a sci-fi character is also a sci-fi fan. To quote Sanctuary Moon: 'Boldness is all!' Murderbot drops new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.
The Review Geek
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Murderbot Episode 4 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch
Murderbot Based on the award-winning, best-selling series by Martha Wells, Murderbot follows a rogue security unit that's self-hacked itself free of company restraints, only to find itself horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Played by Skarsgård, Murderbot is forced to hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe. If you've been following this one, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is releasing. Well, wonder no more! Here is everything you need to know about Murderbot episode 4, including its release date, time and where you can watch this. Where Can I Watch Murderbot? Murderbot is available to stream on AppleTV+. This is an exclusive original series, meaning this is the only place you're going to be able to watch this show. However, now that Apple is available as an extension on Amazon Prime Video, you can also get a subscription to AppleTV+ that way too! Murderbot Episode 4 Release Date Murderbot Episode 4 will release on Friday 30th May at approximately 12am (ET/PT) / 5am (GMT). Of course, it's really dependent on how quickly Apple upload new episodes. Expect this to be pretty close to the release time though. Murderbot Episode 4 is also available with subtitles from its release, with the chapter scheduled to clock in at 32 minutes long. How Many Episodes Will Your Murderbot Season 1 Have? Season 1 of Murderbot is scheduled for 10 episodes, so we've got 6 more episodes to go after this one. Expect the story to continue developing, with plenty of drama still to come! Is There A Trailer For Murderbot? There is indeed! You can find a trailer for Murderbot Season 1 below: What Happened in Episode 3? We'll have the whole episode covered with a lengthy recap that touches on all major plot points and discusses the chapter with an accompanying review. You can find that link below after release: Read more: Murderbot – Episode 3 Recap & Review What do you hope to see as the series progresses? What's been your favorite moment of Murderbot so far? Let us know in the comments below!
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Murderbot' EP David S. Goyer On Alexander Skarsgård And Staying True To Martha Wells' Books
Alexander Skarsgård in "Murderbot." Although he's been a well-respected writer, producer and director in Hollywood for decades, Murderbot executive producer David S. Goyer admits that not every project is an easy sell in the entertainment business. In fact, Goyer was challenged for years in bringing his new sci-fi action comedy Murderbot, to life, but he saw his passion for the material through to bring viewers one of the most unique sci-fi series to hit any visual medium in recent memory. Goyer has had a huge presence in Hollywood for the past 35 years. On film, his screenwriting credits include critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller Dark City, Marvel's Blade trilogy (of which he directed Blade: Trinity), Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The filmmaker, however, is just as prolific with his TV work, as the developer and co-creator of Netflix's The Sandman series and co-creator of Apple TV+'s Foundation, and serving as a writer and producer on both shows — and directing three episodes of the latter. Goyer serves as an executive producer on Murderbot and was instrumental in securing the rights to author Martha Wells' book series The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot arrived on Apple TV+ on May 16 with two-episode premiere and Episode 3 will debut on the streamer on Friday. Created by Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz, Murderbot stars Alexander Skarsgård in the title role as a cyborg who self-hacks his own governing module to become self-aware. Assigned to protect a group of explorers, Murderbot — as the security unit dubs himself — must resist the urge to kill his human counterparts by containing the secret that he's operating under his own free will. Despite his homicidal tendencies, Murderbot also finds the explorers endearing, which becomes helpful as he tries to figure out his place in the universe. Murderbot also stars Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones and Tamara Podemski. David S. Goyer on the set of "Murderbot." While Goyer is thrilled that Murderbot is finally available to the masses, he said he had to dig in his heels to traverse the long and bumpy road on the way to finding a studio to produce the series. 'My producing partner, Keith Levine, and I read a lot of science fiction, a lot of times just for leisure, but when I read Martha's first Murderbot novella seven years ago or so, I immediately fell in love with it,' Goyer told me in a recent Zoom conversation. 'We reached out to her, and she very graciously gave us an option and a shopping agreement.' However, as Goyer soon found out, shopping the series was filled with a lot of roadblocks, with executives simply not getting what Murderbot was all about. 'No one was interested. They were like, 'This is just RoboCop' and we were like, 'No, it's not at all. It's the anti-RoboCop,'' Goyer recalled. 'It's about neurodivergence. It's about humanity.' Goyer said that during the time he and Levine were trying to sell Murderbot as a series, it won the prestigious Hugo and Nebula Awards, which attracted the attention of a company that wanted to make it a feature film. All seemed to finally be going Goyer and Levine's way until another roadblock popped up — and it was a huge one. The company they working with went bankrupt, but thankfully, they hadn't signed the deal yet. Goyer said he was working on Foundation on Apple TV+ when the stars finally aligned. He said the Weitz brothers fell in love with a pitch for Murderbot and agreed to join the project and create the show through a deal they had with Paramount Television Studios. Andrew Miano, Paul Weitz, Alexander Skarsgard, Chris Weitz, Keith Levine, David S. Goyer at Apple ... More TV+'s "Murderbot" Series Premiere held at Regal Union Square on April 28, 2025 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images) Murderbot is no question a huge departure for Alexander Skarsgård, who has been winning acclaim for years thanks to his dramatic work in such series as True Blood, Big Little Lies and Succession, as well as films including The Northman and Infinity Pool. And while Murderbot is a blend of sci-fi with action and suspense, comedy is at the heart of the series. Luckily, David Goyer said, Skarsgård got that sensibility about the character immediately. 'A lot of very good actors auditioned [for the role], but they were just taking it too seriously,' Goyer recalled. 'Alexander didn't audition — he was an offer— but we had a number of conversations first and he was really eager. He immediately realized the kind of opportunity [the role presented], that you love because he's crotchety and weird and super on the spectrum and blurts out things. That's why you love him.' One thing that Goyer discovered working with Skarsgård was that he's just as funny off-screen as he is on-screen. 'He's funny in real life and also just a really lovely guy,' Goyer observed. 'He's very self-deprecating.' David S. Goyer said it was important that Murderbot maintained the tone of the book to ensure the fans of the series would be happy, beginning with fan No. 1: Martha Wells. Even though Wells worked closely with Goyer and company during the making of Murderbot, Goyer said that all would be for naught if she didn't like the completed project. Fortunately, she did and then some. 'Just as a fan [of The Murderbot Diaries] it would be terrible to screw it up,' Goyer said. 'One of the things that I felt good about working on this was that it was really important to Paul and Chris [Weitz] that Martha be heard and happy, and it was important to myself and Keith as well.' As such, Goyer said, Wells 'was involved every step of the way.' 'She read all the scripts and came up to the set for shooting,' Goyer recalled. 'Apple was great because sometimes when we were talking about marketing or publicity, we [were able to express our] thoughts about whether or not that's what Martha would want. Ultimately, Goyer added, Wells 'fell in love with Murderbot and now Apple's fallen in love with it, too.' 'You can't just detach the creator,' Goyer said. 'It would have broken our hearts if Martha weren't happy.' While Murderbot is not quite in the rearview mirror for Goyer— he's naturally hoping for a Season 2 because there are many more stories to be told via Wells' book series — the writer-producer-director is keeping himself busy with two more big projects in 2025: The Sandman will return for its second and final season with six episodes on July 3 and six more episodes on July 24; while Foundation Season 3 arrives on AppleTV+ on July 11 with the first of 10 episodes. With such a full schedule, it begs the question, "How does Goyer do it?" 'I'm very organized. If you saw my calendar, it's 'Work on this project from 9:30 to 10 :30, do this from this to this to this' — I'm very regimented," Goyer said with a smile. Murderbot begins streaming on Apple TV+ Friday with a two-episode premiere, with new episodes premiering weekly through July 11. Note: Some quotes in this interview feature were condensed or edited for clarity.
Indian Express
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
What are The Murderbot Diaries? The award-winning books behind Apple TV+'s sci-fi hit Murderbot starring Alexander Skarsgård
Apple TV+ has just premiered an adaptation of the award-winning sci-fi book series titled Murderbot. And if you're confused by the scary or maybe off-putting title, let us tell you, the show will introduce you to this strange, reluctant hero who likes watching soap operas. Set in the far future, the title is just a cheeky nod to its laid-back personality — and honestly, it's not very good at being a killer. Played by Alexander Skarsgård, the robot gives the title to itself after declaring 'humans are idiots' and breaking free from the system that used to control its actions. But the one who hates and is always horrified by human emotion is vulnerable as well. The books that inspired the show come from Martha Wells. She wrote a series called The Murderbot Diaries, which has seven novellas, two novels, and a couple of short stories. Also read: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in all its exhaustive and bloated messiness, stands as a tribute to the myth of Tom Cruise In the very first book of the series that came out in 2017, Murderbot says, 'As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure,' and that pretty well sums up the whole point of this lighthearted series that can also turn dark and self-reflective at times. Fed up with human emotions, Murderbot—who was designed to make humans' lives easier in the future—hacks its own control system. Martha Wells, who is no stranger to writing fantasy novels, having already worked on Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura as well as Stargate and Star Wars-linked books, published the first Murderbot book, All Systems Red, in 2017. The first part is a quick read, and the next three follow the same pace. Then, in 2020, the first full-length novel in the series, Network Effect, was released. But when it comes to the adaptation, the show is based on only the first part. Also Read | Tom Cruise says 'Bharosa karo, ek aakhri baar' as he gets nostalgic about Taj Mahal, Mumbai: 'Want to make Bollywood-style film' If you want to go through the books first, this is the order Here's how the books came out: The story revolves around a group of scientists who are on a quest to explore an alien planet, and to protect them, security robots are appointed by a ruthless corporation called The Company. But to add to its annoyance, the humans around Murderbot are all kind and treat it like one of them. Murderbot finds people exhausting, they're emotional, they want eye contact, and they keep trying to talk and touch it. But he is nothing like them, though he's still vulnerable to a few, but often ends up needing a break to recharge. Interestingly, because of how it acts and feels, many neurodivergent viewers really connect with the character. The robot calls itself 'Murderbot' as a joke, but it's actually pretty shy and awkward around humans. It pretends the whole time, knowing humans might panic if they find out it's free-thinking. And since it's someone who doesn't want to overthrow humans or fight aliens, and instead just wants to do their job while binge-watching soap operas and TV serials, the humour part instantly kicks in. Murderbot likes judging humans around, but as the story goes on, it understands the harsh realities of the corporate-run future, where humans and robots alike are just tools in a bigger game. 'I was built to protect and obey humans. And humans… are idiots. But now that I've hacked my programming, I can do whatever I want… as long as they don't find out,' Murderbot says in the trailer. Unlike many robot stories where machines try to conquer or destroy humans, Murderbot is more about learning what it means to be free and to connect with others, even if it's reluctant. It's funny and clever, and sometimes sarcastic, often taking a jab at human emotions. 'Why did you even want freedom in the first place if all you're going to do is shut yourself away from the world?' The series sticks closely to the first novella, but it also expands the story with new characters like Leebeebee (played by Anna Konkle). New episode of Murderbot are released every Friday.
