I’ve just finished reading the last of the books, and I’m pretty excited to see what they do with the series.
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.
