Everything We Know About 'Murderbot' TV Series (So Far) | The Mary Sue
Everything We Know About 'Murderbot' TV Series (So Far) | The Mary Sue
The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning book series 'The Murderbot Diaries' by Martha Wells has been greenlit for a 10-episode season on Apple TV+.
I've just finished reading the last of the books, and I'm pretty excited to see what they do with the series.
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"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?
Well obviously they should have looked at all available robot/cyborgs first. Lol
I am envisioning one of those mock audition skits now. C3PO, Marvin the depressed robot, Christoper Walkin for some reason, etc.. All reading Murderbot lines.
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
Being asexual is an orientation, not a gender. Signed, an asexual cis male.
I guarantee there is some androgynous trans actor out there who could have torn this role up.
You know what "acting" is, right? If we limit actors to only play what they are, asexual actors will be out of a job and I really fear the next actor that has to play Hitler.
This IS a situation though (action scifi genre) where cishet men are already MASSIVELY over represented. Casting an attractive cishet man as Murderbot IS a missed opportunity. You don't have to LIKE that people are noticing and complaining, but it's STILL a missed opportunity.
Name one that would REMOTELY fit the role
SecUnit does not have a digestive system, so they need to find an actor with no digestive system, and be willing to have 2 inches cut off their legs.
AND has gun ports in arms. They're lining up outside of the audition room.
What percent of male presenting men are cishet men? Over representation would require relatively more roles go to them than they represent in the population.
Androgynous or trans wouldn't reflect the character though. The robot has no sex characteristics and isn't even human. So it really should be played by an AI.
P.S. I meant this sarcastically. But the more I think about it, the more interesting it sounds. Having a robot character voiced by an AI actually seems kind of inevitable really.