Murderbot’s First Trailer Shows Off Its Wry Mechanical Protagonist

His name is “Murderbot,” and he doesn’t think much of humans—but the rogue security unit at the center of Apple TV+’s new sci-fi comedy thriller series is no rage-filled killing machine. He’s more of a curious searcher and a fan of trash TV, but he will resort to violence when necessary, a combination of personality traits that confounds the carbon-based members of his crew.

Check out the very engaging first trailer for Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård as the deadly android with the surprisingly sweet face.

Murderbot (a self-given name, by the way) is watching TV when he should be protecting his teammates, but in his defense, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon does look rather enthralling. Much more exciting than whatever that giant centipede-thing is, but he takes care of business anyway.

Here’s the official description, as if you needed any more enticement to watch this one:

“Based on Martha Wells’ best-selling, Hugo and Nebula Award winning book series The Murderbot Diaries, Murderbot is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Played by Skarsgård, Murderbot must 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.”

The rest of the cast includes Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, and Tamara Podemski. The show is executive produced by Skarsgård and comes from sibling filmmaking team Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy; Paul Weitz also co-created Mozart in the Jungle).

Murderbot arrives May 16 on Apple TV+ with its first two episodes; the rest of the 10-episode season rolls out Fridays through July 11.

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