Why Murderbot Was The Perfect Project To Reunite The Weitz Brothers

May 16, 2025

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The Weitz brothers are back together for Murderbot. Apple TV+’s latest sci-fi epic adapts Martha Wells’s critically-acclaimed book series The Murderbot Diaries for a ten-episode first season, one which explores Alexander Skarsgärd’s titular security cyborg as it navigates an intergalactic conflict while masking its recently-discovered free will and discovering its place within the universe.

Chris and Paul Weitz spent the early years of their Hollywood careers alongside one another, collaborating on feature films like Antz, American Pie, and the Academy Award-nominamted About a Boy before developing their own projects. Chris penned the likes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Creator while Paul’s directing credits include Little Fockers and Fatherhood.

Everything is designed to stay true to the story being told, the characters showcased, and the emotions the show is trying to evoke.

ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley spoke with the duo to discuss what made Murderbot the right project to come back together on after over 20 years, their collaboration process with Wells, and what could be in store for future seasons.

The Weitz Brothers Reunite For The First Time Since 2002 On Murderbot

“We’d never found something that we were equally committed to doing…”

Murderbot represents new territory for the Weitz brothers. While Chris and Paul had several collaborations in the early years of their careers, they approached adapting Martha Wells’s book with level anticipation.

“Paul read the book first, I believe, and then he loved it and handed it to me and I digged it just as much,” Chris told ScreenRant. “The fact that we hadn’t worked together for 20 years was because we’d never found something that we were equally committed to doing. So it was great to get the band back together this time.”

“I remember with About a Boy, we’d been looking for a quote ‘Billy Wilder film,’ and Chris called me up and said, ‘I think I found our Billy Wilder film and then sent me About a Boy,” Paul added. “So I don’t know what the equivalent was here, but this book is such a specific character and such a fun, unique view on humanity. I was psyched that Chris wanted to do it.”

Murderbot Does Justice To Its Source Material

“In this case, what worked on the page did work on the screen…”

Apple TV+ is no stranger to adapting fan-favorite sci-fi franchises from the page to the streaming screen. The streamer has collaborated with authors like Blake Crouch and Graham Yost to bring Dark Matter and Silo to life, respectively. The author-producer synergy continued with Murderbot scribe Martha Wells on this serialized adaptation.

“In this case, what worked on the page did work on the screen. It was just a question of when to put it out there,” Paul said of the adaptation process. “Martha got a kick out of sort of exploring her world. She knew we weren’t going to take anything out, but in terms of adding stuff, she was totally up for it. When we had an idea, we would call her up, and she’d either say, ‘Oh, that’s a cool idea,’ or, ‘What would you think of this instead?’ She’s a really great person and she seemed to get a kick out of it.”

And that collaboration process has the potential to continue for several more seasons. Wells has seven stories in The Murderbot Diaries catalog.

“We’re super jinxy about this kind of thing, right? We never want to assume that we get to do any more,” Chris said when asked about the status of future Murderbot seasons. “We thought a bit about it. We know that having spent a season kind of making an audience hopefully fall in love with characters, they’d like to see them again. As much as we know, there’s so much great material to use. We’ll probably be doing some kind of mash-up of the next few books.”

Murderbot premieres on Apple TV+ on May 16.

Source: ScreenRant Plus