I’ve just finished reading the last of the books, and I’m pretty excited to see what they do with the series.
“Already, there’s been some controversy surrounding the casting of Skarsgård, a cis man, as Murderbot, an android with no sexual characteristics (because, in Murderbot’s words, why would it need them, it’s not a sex bot).”
I really hope this is a joke that’s going over my head. Was the casting department supposed to rely on the wide pool of openly asexual actors?
In one of the other discussions here, there were a number of people who pictured Murderbot as female, a number male, and some who truly pictured it genderless. For the people who pictured it female, I’m sure a male actor doesn’t sit right. To me, casting seems difficult because it’s supposed to be somewhat physically imposing, shouldn’t have obvious breasts, but also shouldn’t be overtly masculine. I’ll be curious to see what they do with the actor.
It’s a tough role to cast, since the books never describe what Murderbot looks like at all, beyond “has a face” and “has short hair but no body hair” and “some organic parts on arms but not on legs”. And Murderbot can pass as human if someone doesn’t know what SecUnits look like. No indication of height, build, complexion, features, nothing. So anyone they cast is going to look wrong to a bunch of readers because their mental pictures can vary so widely.
Mine is somewhere between Gwendolyn Christie and Robocop. But I like Alexander Skarsgard and I’ll definitely watch this. He has a good “I am 100% done with everyone’s nonsense” expression, which is vital.
He has a good “I am 100% done with everyone’s
nonsense” expression, which is vital. Honestly, that’s the key quality for me: someone who can pull off the social anxiety and the disgust with humans while also clearly caring for at least some of them.
Look at the source. This is their schtick.
I’m sure Ezra Miller is free. Hardy har bar
The article said 3 times that Murderbot is an android; Murderbot is not an android, it’s a cyborg or construct (with both organic and inorganic parts). Geez.
Author watched too much DBZ
I wonder how they will get the inner monologue and communication between systems on screen. Murderbot talking about his stories or how stupid humans are is the best part
My guess would be narration by Murderbot’s actor for the inner monologue.
The systems communication might partially be handled like how most things handle text messages, with the word bubbles.
I wonder if they’ll commit to hiding the actor’s face most of the time.
Maybe they’ll do a Dune and have the characters whisper to themselves half the time.
That brings up a really good point. A lot of the story is Murderbot describing how they are hacking this or that. It could be really tricky handling that on tv in a way that is entertaining.
So this is being developed by the people responsible for - variously - The Creator, American Pie, and Foundation?
Not exactly inspiring huge confidence in their ability to create thoughtful science fiction that respects and understands the core themes of the source material.
I’ve read the Murderbot books and enjoyed them, but I wouldn’t call them deep.
Each one’s a novella at best, going for full price, too.
I bought the audiobook for the most recent book. 3.4hours for the whole thing.
Sure, but Foundation isn’t exactly deeply layered either. It expresses its themes (theme, really) very directly. And despite that Goyer still managed to adapt a series of books about how no one person really influences history in meaningful ways, it’s the power of social movements that matters, into a TV show about how the whole of history can turn on the actions of one person in the right place at the right time. There’s “trashy” and then there’s “Managing to somehow miss the core theme of a book where characters frequently turn to the audience and literally state the core theme outright.”
The mental health journey of murderbot is pretty subtle. That would be a pretty easy thing to screw-up.
look, I’m bored. I just want to watch my tv, okay?
Me too, but the stupid humans keep doing stupid stuff.
