We’d buy this for a dollar. After years of development, Amazon MGM Studios has just officially greenlit a new series based on the classic 1987 sci-fi film RoboCop. Peter Ocko (Lodge 49) will showrun, and James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring) is among the producers, as was previously reported.
“I’ve been a massive fan of RoboCop forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” Wan said in a statement to Deadline. “What Paul Verhoeven created in 1987 was decades ahead of its time, and its questions about technology, identity, and who corporations really serve have only grown more urgent. With Peter’s distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling, and alongside Ed [Neumeier, co-creator and co-writer of the original] and our partners at Amazon MGM Studios, we’re working to honor what made the original iconic and highlight its relevancy in this modern, tech-driven world, while building something unmistakably new for a global audience.”
RoboCop tells the story of a futuristic Detroit police officer named Alex Murphy, originally played by Peter Weller. When Murphy is brutally murdered in the line of duty, he’s selected for an experimental program that uses his remains to power a new, robotic police officer. But, eventually, some of Murphy’s humanity returns as he uncovers that not all is right with this program. The subversive, violent 1987 film was a big enough hit that it spawned two sequels as well as a 1994 TV series. It was then rebooted in 2014 with Joel Kinnaman as Murphy, but both of those versions failed.
When Amazon acquired MGM back in 2022, one of its first plans was to mine the studio’s rich list of IP. That included Legally Blonde (which recently got a prequel series on Prime Video), Stargate (which was in development until just recently) and, now, RoboCop.
“RoboCop is a franchise that has meant something to audiences for nearly four decades—not just as an action spectacle, but as a sharp, provocative mirror of our relationship with technology and power,” Peter Friedlander, Head of Global Television at Amazon MGM Studios, said. “Peter Ocko has crafted a vision that honors the soul of what made the original so enduring while building something entirely fresh and urgent for today. Paired with the cinematic sensibility of James Wan and the team at Blumhouse Atomic Monster, we believe this series will captivate a whole new generation of fans on Prime Video.”
We hope so, Pete. We really do. Because, as incredible as Alex Murphy is, you can only resurrect the dead so many times.
Are you optimistic about this new take on RoboCop? Let us know below.
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