When Amazon acquired MGM back in 2022, the streamer got something that it didn’t have before: a vast library of titles to stock its virtual shelves, but also the rights to characters and stories that it could use to tell new versions of classic tales. Prime Video has wasted no time since then in doing just that, reviving the likes of Legally Blonde, The Thomas Crown Affair, Voltron, and even making a deal to give them full control of the James Bond franchise moving forward. Now, another reboot Prime Video has been after has finally taken a massive step forward, but it comes with scant details that will leave franchise diehards wondering the same thing.
After first being revealed to be in development back in 2024, Amazon MGM Studios has officially confirmed a series order for Robocop, a new eight-episode series that will stream exclusively on Prime Video. As previously reported, Peter Ocko (Lodge 49, Pushing Daisies) is set to act as showrunner and writer, with James Wan also executive producing the show. Today’s news does confirm that Ed Neumeier, co-creator and co-writer of the original RoboCop movie, will act as a series EP, but it begs the question: Is this yet another reboot of the property, or will it deliver a legacy sequel of the original film?
Fans hoping to know for sure if this new Robocop TV series, which the press release specifically stylizes with a lowercase “c,” unlike the film, will continue from the events of the original won’t find confirmation of that today. Though the release highlights the iconic nature of the original film and its place as a totemic blend of action, satire, and an enduring science fiction character, the new series seems like a fresh start, as it’s referred to as “the ideal property to reimagine for a new era of television” (a line that an OCP exec might actually say out loud in Verhoeven’s film).
Only a brief logline is offered for the series, which reads: “In Robocop, a giant tech conglomerate convinces the city to place a powerful robot on its police force – a robot implanted with the consciousness of a beloved, fallen officer.” For longtime fans, that sounds just like the original, but according to Wan, Peter Ocko has a “distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling” for the new series, all of which, again, points to this being a total reboot.
“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. “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.”
As fans may recall, RoboCop as a franchise persisted over the years despite waning quality in every follow-up that was made. Though some fans have an appreciation for RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, neither could match the original movie. The same could be said for the previous attempts to bring the series to television. It”s worth noting, though, that even though original RoboCop star Peter Weller only returned for the original sequel, subsequent stories didn’t have him as the title character, but they still acted as canon to the first movie.
Back in 2014, a total reboot of the property was made with Joel Kinnaman in the title role. Though a modest hit at the box office, it got mixed reviews and failed to reignite the property, in part because the original film remains so beloved that any kind of replacement has a high bar to clear. That same lesson is something the new Robocop TV series will have to account for as well, that the love for Paul Verhoeven’s first film and Peter Weller’s performance as Alex Murphy is still held in a high place for fans.
The good news for Prime Video’s Robocop TV series, though, is that they’ve been developing it for years now, and they’ve not only taken into account how fans will feel about a new Robocop; there’s no way they weren’t approaching the new material from that same perspective. The other piece of good news is Weller himself has already noted he’s interested in some kind of return, but whether that will be as the main character or not remains to be seen.
