Apple TV+’s new sci-fi seriesMurderbotis the perfect show to watch while waiting for the release of Timothy Olyphant’s upcoming seriesAlien: Earth. As the August 12release date ofAlien: Earthapproaches, the show is only getting harder to wait for. Thenewest trailer forAlien: Earthhas already teased a horrifying and groundbreaking entry intotheAlientimeline, complete with Xenomorphs, new, unknown hostile alien species, and a never-before-seen kind of synthetic lifeform. There’s a lot to be excited for aboutAlien: Earth, but there’s still two full months until it’ll be available to stream.
Luckily, Apple TV+ already has a series that ticks a lot of the same boxes thatAlien: Earthdoes.Murderbotstars Alexander Skarsgårdas the titular android, a Security Unit who has hacked itself and no longer has to listen to its human masters. Though it calls itself Murderbot and does, in theory, want to kill humans,Murderbotis really a story of how the SecUnit learns to overcome its social anxiety and fight for the people who inexplicably chose to love it.Murderbotclearly has a much lighter tone thanAlien: Earthwill, but it’s still a great series to watch in the meantime.
Apple TV+’s Murderbot Is The Perfect Show To Watch While Waiting For Alien: Earth
Though It’s More Of An Action Comedy, Murderbot Still Features Questions About Artificial Life, Giant Alien Monsters, & More Similarities To Alien: Earth
Though it is something of an adventure comedy,Murderbotstill touches on many of the deeper questionsAlien: Earthis sure to bring up.As with almost every story about androids, bothMurderbotandAlien: Earthare going to interrogate the ethics of using artificial lifeforms as slave labor.Alien: Earth’s main heroes seem to be synthetics, and it could easily make a statement about how synthetic life isn’t as valuable as human life, which is why they’re sent to kill the Xenomorph.Murderbotconstantly makes that statement, as the SecUnit nearly kills itself every time it gets in a fight.
On a more basic level,Murderbotshould also have some other similarities toAlien: Earth. In the premiere ofMurderbot, for example,Murderbot fights a massive centipede-like monster trying to kill and eat its clients, while the synthetics inAlien: Earthwill have to contend with a Xenomorph and other hostile aliens.Murderbotalso centers around the mystery of who is trying to kill Murderbot’s clients, PreservationAux, whileEarthwill be trying to solve the mysterious origins of the ship that crash-lands while carrying the Xenomorph.Murderbotmay be less focused on horror, but there’s plenty there for fans ofAliento enjoy.
Alien: Earth’s New Synthetic-Human Hybrids Are Even More Like Murderbot
Alien: Earth’s Synthetics Have Human Minds, While Murderbot Is A SecUnit With Human Emotions
Another big changeAlien: Earthis making to the standardAlienformula also makes it even more similar toMurderbot. Most of theandroids inAlien- with a few notable exceptions, like Bishop inAliensand Andy inAlien: Romulus- are murderous machines whose only allegiance is to the Weyland-Yutani corporation.Alien: Earth, however, promises to focus on the first human-synthetic hybrids, which should make them very different from the rest of the franchise’s synthetics. We’ve already seen that Wendy (Sydney Chandler) is a hero ofAlien: Earth, and she also has a human mind in her artificial body.
The new human-synthetic hybrids inAlien: Earthare extremely similar to the titular SecUnit inMurderbot.Wendy and the other synthetics inEarthwill presumably have human emotions despite being androids, and Murderbot also has human emotions like anxiety and depression despite being a SecUnit. Murderbot is also supposed to be completely obedient to theCompany inMurderbot, but it constantly chooses to protect humans and disobey orders instead. We don’t know for sure yet, but there’s a very high chance that Wendy and her friends will also disobey Prodigy as they hunt the Xenomorph inAlien: Earth.
The Perimeter
July 11
IfMurderbotgets renewed for a second season, it will also have a chance to get closer in tone to theAlienfranchise. WhileMurderbotseason 1 is an action comedy, it’s also based onThe Murderbot Diariesby Martha Wells.In the second book and beyond, the storyMurderbotis based on gets significantly darker, more mysterious, and adds more horror elements into the mix that should make it more similar toAlien: Earth. There’s no guarantee thatMurderbotwill get that far, but for now, it still serves as a great replacement forAlien: Earth.
Murderbot
Cast
Murderbot, released on July 04, 2025, is set in a high-tech future where a rogue security robot gains free will. To remain undetected, it must join a mission to protect scientists on a perilous planet, while its true desire is to indulge in watching soap operas.
