Apple TV+ Just Dropped the Official Murderbot Trailer

The official trailer was just released for the Apple TV+ series adaptation of Martha Wells’s bestselling, award-winning book series, The Murderbot Diaries.

In the trailer, we watch as the eponymous sec unit (or “security unit”), which has named itself Murderbot, is hired for security detail by a crew of scientists. Eventually, it’s discovered to have hijacked its own system and gone “rogue.” Going rogue essentially means that it, as a security/killing cyborg, has free will as opposed to being controlled. And it, naturally, uses this free will to watch hours upon hours of “content,” which includes space soap operas like The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

We’re soon shown how free will is an issue, though, since sec units are designed for violence, and the crew isn’t sure that they can trust it. But the hostile environment they landed on means they don’t have much of a choice.

Alexander Skarsgård stars, and his comedic timing meshes perfectly with Murderbot’s awkward temperament, while the rest of the cast—David Dastmalchia as Gurathin, Noma Dumezweni as Dr. Mensah, Akshay Khanna as Ratthi, and others—feel just as equally plucked from Martha Wells’s pages.

The series debuts May 16th this year, but if you want to prep by listening to the highly entertaining (and hilarious) Murderbot series before season one drops, the award-winning Kevin R. Free’s narration is perfect.

To learn more about the series, visit Apple TV+

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.