23-05-2025
John Cho's cheesy Captain has space fling in 'Murderboat' soap opera 'Sanctuary Moon'
John Cho's cheesy Captain has space fling in 'Murderboat' soap opera 'Sanctuary Moon' 'The Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moon' is the bad show within Apple TV+ series 'Murderbot'
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'Murderbot' has John Cho, Clark Gregg, DeWanda Wise: 'Sanctuary Moon'
John Cho, DeWanda Wise, Jack McBrayer and Clark Gregg star in "Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moon," the cheesy show within Apple TV+ series "Murderbot."
There were a few caveats to the swaggering starship captain role offered to John Cho, who played Starfleet officer Hikaru Sulu in three "Star Trek" movies.
First, Cho's captain would appear in "The Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moon," an over-the-top sci-fi soap opera that takes place entirely within the Apple TV+ action comedy series "Murderbot" (new episode streaming May 23). The tawdry soap is the favorite show consumed by the titular trash-TV-loving security robot, Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård).
Second, he would lead a ridiculous crew, including a wildly wigged Navigation Officer (Jack McBrayer) and an insanely mutton-chopped Lieutenant (Clark Gregg) who accuses his leader of sleeping with an iridescent Navigation Unit (DeWanda Wise).
Still, Cho was compelled to board the project with his longtime "American Pie" collaborators Chris and Paul Weitz.
"It was framed like I would be the captain in a soap opera that Murderbot is obsessed with," says Cho. "I said, 'It's just so stupid, I have to do it.' Stupid is one of my highest compliments, by the way."
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Stupid is what Cho boldly does in "Sanctuary Moon," after joining his new crew on the Toronto "Murderbot" set to shoot the separate drama. Wise, who starred in "Fatherhood" with the Weitz brothers, brought her soap opera love and obsession of shows-within-shows to play the mysterious Navigation Unit. "My 'Sanctuary Moon' joke was, 'I'm still a lead character, right? I'm just a lead character in this show within the show,' " says Wise.
Wise planned to go campy full-robot for the mysterious bot character. But the "She's Gotta Have It" star found out that she would be uttering lines like, "I'm a navigation unit, not a sex-bot" with a sense of forlornness.
"They were like, 'We're gonna play it for real and sincerely, with sprinkles of comedy,'" says Wise, who tried to keep a straight face during interstellar emoting. "All of these guys are so funny that 89% of the job was not ruining the take by laughing. It was like, don't be the one."
The space soap opera is mentioned in the source material, Martha Wells' popular sci-fi series "The Murderbot Diaries," But "Murderbot" creators fleshed the concept out for a twisted multi-episode space adventure that veers immediately off-kilter with the affair accusation. The madness continues to spin out of control in further "Sanctuary Moon" episodes throughout the "Murderbot" series.
It turns out the rakish Captain can spout inspirational lines like "Boldness is on!" and enjoy cocktails later, not to mention partaking in an anti-regulation affair. Cho insisted on eyeliner, and that's his own hair. "There was spray, there was gook, it got volumnized," says Cho. "They went big." But not as big as the performance.
"We weren't asking John to act badly," says executive producer Paul Weitz. "We just asked him to emote beyond the realms of what most people think is good. And he did that very well."
Skarsgård insisted that his longtime friend McBrayer take the project. "Yeah, that's my fault," the Swedish actor admits. "We thought it would be fun."
McBrayer gamely agreed to don the "birds nest of a wig" on the multi-colored set he says "looks like a confetti cannon threw up." He let the proposed idea of adding a face tattoo die for practicality's sake (too long in the makeup chair). The "30 Rock" actor appreciated how soap opera impacts Murderbot, who begins saying lines like "Boldness is on!"
"Murderbot absorbs the ridiculous 'Sanctuary Moon' dialog and interactions and incorporates them," says McBrayer. "Just like people are learning how to behave based on TikTok trends."
Cho, who insists his "Star Trek" movie captain Chris Pine is "most likely blissfully unaware" of his project, loved the fromage fest. He's not just hoping for a "Murderbot" Season 2 and more episodes (which Apple has not greenlit yet). Cho wants a full-on "Sanctuary Moon" show.
"My wife tells me that I have a real soft spot for performances that other people call cheesy," says Cho. "From Day 1, I kept telling the Weitzs to please let me do this show somewhere. That was just too much fun."
