In recent times, we have seen Dan Stevens play a Titan veterinarian in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, head of a crew who unwittingly kidnap a vampire ballerina in Abigail, a sinister resort owner in Cuckoo, and are imminently awaiting his turn as *checks notes* a boot-licking Nazi scientist in Adam Wingard’s Onslaught. Now, in his efforts to affirm his status as the most unpredictable actor working today, Stevens has lined up his next major project: per Deadline‘s reporting, the in-demand actor is set to play RoboCop in Prime Video and Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s upcoming James Wan produced RoboCop series.
Hailing from showrunner Peter Ocko and based on Paul Verhoeven’s legendary 1987 satire – a sharp-edged cyberpunk sci-fi charting the literal dehumanisation of Peter Weller’s law enforcer Murphy as he’s brought back from the dead and turned into a crime-exploding cyborg — Prime Video’s RoboCop is set to give the source material a contemporary, eight-episode update. Stevens will be stepping into Weller’s mechanical boots as the fallen officer whose consciousness powers a nefarious tech conglomerate’s mission to bring metal men in uniforms to a near-future Detroit.
When RoboCop first got the greenlight last month, producer Wan shared his excitement and passion for his upcoming return to Verhoeven’s cult classic universe. “I’ve been a massive fan of RoboCop forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” he said in a press release. “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.” Continuing, Wan also celebrated “Peter’s distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling”, promising Ocko’s self-penned take on the material would “honour what made the original iconic and highlight its relevancy in this modern, tech-driven world, while building something unmistakably new for a global audience.”
Over the years, RoboCop has remained in the public consciousness thanks to its sequels (1990’s RoboCop 2 and 1993’s utterly bizarre RoboCop 3), TV adaptations, kids’ cartoons, and that 2014 Joel Kinnaman reboot, but nothing has quite measured up to Paul Verhoeven’s original darkly satirical genre masterclass. With Stevens on board though, TV veteran Ocko showrunning, and the might and clout of Amazon and Blumhouse Atomic Monster powering this new series, perhaps now is the right time to have RoboCop back on the beat, serving the public trust, protecting the innocent, and upholding the law. Colour us very intrigued…
