Murderbot, the Apple TV+ adaptation of Martha Wells’ book series, is set to premiere in mere days!
In the lead up to the release of the first episode, I had the chance to talk with the showrunners, brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, about their experience creating the show (shows, really, since we also talked about Sanctuary Moon), crafting Murderbot’s voice, and what new additions to the series they think fans of the books will enjoy.
“Anytime you make a show out of something, you’re making something concrete that was formerly abstract, right?” Chris told me. “I like to think like we are making fan fiction, we just happen to have these amazing resources to do it.”
Read on for our full discussion, including how Wells worked with them on key parts of the series.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
You’ve said before that what attracted you to Murderbot was that the character was a mix between Marvin from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Candide, and Spock. I would love to dig into that a bit more—I think everybody’s who’s read Murderbot has a specific voice in their head, and I think they’re all unique. When you were talking with Alexander Skarsgård [who plays Murderbot], how did you approach developing his voice?
Paul Weitz: I have to take the rap for that, the quote that you started with. I think the first thing is that this person exists. Alexander really did the work in terms of every single line, for instance, of voiceover he’d ask, “Why is it saying this?” Alexander has an eccentric sense of humor. He’s a unique person… and he simply got a version of the character, which, luckily, Martha Wells was into. Part of it was just making sure that Martha was involved and at least getting to comment on stuff throughout the process.
Chris Weitz: Kevin R. Free does a really beautiful version of the voice of Murderbot in the audiobooks. So that’s often people’s first notion of it, if it’s not their own voice in their head. Anytime you make a show out of something, you’re making something concrete that was formerly abstract, right? I like to think like we are making fan fiction, we just happen to have these amazing resources to do it, and to know that you won’t please absolutely everybody, but that what you’re going to do is going to be a genuine version of the character.
I want to talk about Sanctuary Moon, which is fantastic on the show. I would love to hear how you pitched that to the actors you got to play parts on it.
Chris Weitz: It was just, “Come and have a bit of fun, and also just cut loose.” I think that all writers and actors and directors have instincts which sometimes are very campy and sort of “bad,” but they would secretly love to perform that way without too much retrospection. So the chance to act badly or seemingly badly, or to be really over-emphatic and over-emotional, was a really appealing thing to offer to people.
Paul Weitz: It’s interesting going back and looking at a lot of David Lynch’s films now, and reading interviews with great actors who feel like he gave them the opportunity to do things as actors that they never were able to do before. There’s an emotionality in those movies which, if you pluck them out and put them into a soap opera, they’d be like, “Oh, that’s completely suitable.” And it’s soap opera acting, and there’s an over-emotiveness to it, but also, it’s art. And so I think part of the thing with Sanctuary Moon was, Murderbot’s into this show, obsessed with it. Murderbot’s our main character, and Murderbot’s, not an idiot, so there’s got to be something good about this show too. And also, having done a certain amount of work with opera singers and opera, there’s something very operatic about Sanctuary Moon. And then also, it showed us what the main show can’t be.
With adaptations, you have a chance to expand on the story in the book. Was there any one specific thing that you really loved adding to the story that we get to see on screen?
Chris Weitz: I think, Anna Konkle’s character. We don’t want to give any spoilers, but she’s a really, really fun character brought to life by a really great comic actor. And I think fans are gonna like it. I mean Martha did, which is very gratifying in terms of extrapolating on the world that she had built.
Paul Weitz: Yeah, and I think it’s respecting where the book ends up, which to me is a really beautiful message about not trying to reduce personhood, respecting different modes of thinking and being and feeling, whether or not they make sense to you.
Murderbot premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 16, 2025.