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A RoboCop reboot is officially booting up. Prime Video has ordered eight episodes of the RoboCop streaming television reboot. The series has been in development at Amazon MGM Studios ever since Amazon purchased MGM in 2022, with Amazon quick to exploit MGM's catalog of IP, which also includes James Bond and Stargate.
Per Prime Video's official logline for the RoboCop reboot, “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.” Given that Amazon is a "giant tech conglomerate," fans of the original RoboCop may be quick to wonder if the reboot series can channel the original RoboCop's biting, anti-corporate satire.
RoboCop Officially Returns as a Streaming Series
The RoboCop reboot is a co-production of Amazon MGM Studios and Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Peter Ocko is writing the series and will serve as showrunner and executive producer. James Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett are executive producing for Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Ed Neumeier, who co-created and co-wrote the first RoboCop movie, is also an executive producer. Danielle Bozzone of Blumhouse Atomic Monster is a co-executive producer and will oversee the production.
“I’ve been a massive fan of Robocop forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” said Wan. “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 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.”
Prime Video's Series Is the Latest Attempt to Revive RoboCop as a Franchise
RoboCop debuted in 1987, starring Peter Weller as the title character, a police officer brutally murdered on the job and technologically resurrected by a tech company in bed with the government and the police force to become the ultimate crime-fighting machine and put human cops out of business. Paul Verhoeven directed the original RoboCop, which quickly became a cult classic, and kicked off Verhoeven's unofficial satirical sci-fi trilogy that also includes Starship Troopers and Total Recall.
RoboCop also became an actual film trilogy, with Weller returning for the first sequel, RoboCop 2, directed by The Empire Strikes Back's Irwin Kirschner and written by comic book legend Frank Miller. Robert Burke took over the leading role in RoboCop3, also written by Miller, and directed by Fred Dekker.
“I’ve been a massive fan of ‘Robocop’ forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream,” Wan added. “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 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.”
Prime Video's series is neither the first attempt to reboot RoboCop nor the franchise's first television series. There have been four previous RoboCop TV shows, two live-action (RoboCop in 1994 and RoboCop: Prime Directives in 2001) and two animated (RoboCop in 1988 and RoboCop: Alpha Commando in 1998). Joel Kinnaman starred in a RoboCop film reboot in 2014 that failed to gain much traction with audiences.
