Based on Martha Wells’ award-winning book series, Murderbot is a science fiction comedy thriller which follows a security android known as SecUnit (Alexander Skarsgård), who figured out how to hack his own governor module, gaining free will. Although now free, SecUnit, pretending to still be under corporate control, decides to stay with the group of humans who have rented him for protection, even if he would prefer to binge-watch soap operas then interact with them. In the most recent episode, the team heads across the planet to find the fate of the DeltFall team who they fear might be in danger. SecUnit arrives to find that not only has the DeltFall team been killed, but someone has also hijacked their security unit’s programming by installing a combat override module, and whoever is responsible, is still lurking nearby.

Recently, creators and writers of the series, Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, who also directed some of the episodes, spoke with SciFi Vision about bringing their version of Murderbot to life, what made them want to adapt it, their favorite parts, casting Skarsgård, and more.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below and catch all-new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.



SCIFI VISION:   I very much enjoyed the series. It was a lot of fun, but what made you guys want to adapt it in the first place?

PAUL WEITZ:   There're so many things that make one not want to adapt something, and I think that the fact that the character was so clear, it's such a great literary character. I think it has predecessors in science fiction literature. But I hadn't seen it before, and it was articulating something so clear. The fact that it was funny, that Murderbot itself is funny, was great.

And I read for pleasure. I don't read to be like, “Oh, I'd love to adapt this.” In fact, when I do things, the rare to every couple of years when I read something that I think could be a really great thing to adapt, like this, I have a sinking feeling, because if you get to do it, if your fantasy comes true, it's years of work.

So, then Chris read it and then reassuringly also loved it in the same way.

SCIFI VISION:   Is there anything you want to add?

CHRIS WEITZ:   I mean, the books are short. I love a short book. Actually, the brevity of the first book posed a challenge, because we didn't want to adapt two different books so that the story changes halfway through the season. So, we knew that we were going to have to add things to the plot from the first book. Fortunately, Martha was not only really open to the possibility, but was willing to kind of collaborate and coming up with stuff. So, I think you might get the best of both worlds if you're a fan of the books. You get the book, and you get cool new stuff that has been Martha approved.

PAUL WEITZ:   Yeah, because we would send stuff. That is also a major thing. The fact that Martha seemed like she was going to get a kick out of it, that she would enjoy the experience, given the amount of sort of respect that we had for her. The fact that if we were adding something, we could call her up and say, “We're thinking of this. Do you like this idea or no?” And she might say, “Well, that's fine, but what about this?” The fact that she was enjoying it and that she and her husband, Troyce, were sort of big fans of fantasy and science fiction and this was a new experience for her was really important.

SCIFI VISION:   Was there anything that you had to, I guess, change when you adapted it or couldn't include for whatever reason because it's a TV show and it just didn't work out? Is there anything you had to change?

[Paul shakes his head]

SCIFI VISION:   No, that's good.

What's your favorite part that came from the book then that you put into it, your favorite one, the way it came out?

CHRIS WEITZ:   Oh, favorite bits. Let me see. I mean, I think we were able to add in elements of Port Free Commerce, which is the kind of space station, which is only glancingly referred to, but we were able to develop into a whole kind of vibe and world of its own, so that you get some of the backstory to Murderbot having been put on the team. That was super fun to do.

SCIFI VISION:   Talk about casting Alex.

PAUL WEITZ:   He has a really interesting, weird aesthetic in his life and in the way that he looks at things. He also has a military background. He was in, I think, Special Forces in the Swedish Army. He is completely counter to his physical appearance. He's a complete sort of eccentric nerd inside the body of a, you know, Norseman, and he's like a dog with a bone about certain things, about the logic. So, he was concerned within this story, like, what are GrayCris's motivations? Why do they do this or that? Stuff that you wouldn't think that the lead in a series would be thinking about, but he's very literal in a way similar to Murderbot. There are some Murderbot-esque qualities for Alexander. Yeah, he's a good guy.