Murderbot‘s Creators on Finding the Right Tone for the Sci-Fi Comedy-Thriller

Murderbot creators, writers, directors, and executive producers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz had well-established source material when it came to adapting their new series for Apple TV+. Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries books, starting with the Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella All Systems Red, craft a specific world and an even more specific character: a self-aware Security Unit that’s both heavily armed and deeply sarcastic. Of course, it (mostly) only shoots when necessary—including when things heat up in Murderbot‘s plot—and the majority of its snarky taunts go unheard by anyone but the audience as part of the character’s inner monologue. Even still, the 10-episode show is very much both a comedy and a thriller, a balance of tones the Weitzes aimed to keep consistent without making it feel forced. “I think it’s really hard to have it constantly in mind,” Chris Weitz told io9 at a recent Murderbot press day. “You’ve just got this kind of tuning fork of tone in your mind, and things ei ... Read full article.