While Murderbot season 1 might have been one of 2025’s most acclaimed new sci-fi shows, the satirical action thriller won’t return in 2026. Even though the early 2000s was home to the iconic space western Firefly, the Battlestar Galactica reboot, multiple Stargate shows, Futurama‘s original run, and the underrated James Cameron series Dark Angel, the 2020s still mark a uniquely fecund era for the sci-fi genre on the small screen.
Netflix users can choose between Stranger Things, Black Mirror, the animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots, and the ambitious epic 3 Body Problem. Hulu offers sci-fi fans the Margaret Atwood adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale and its spinoff The Testaments, while audience members who log into Apple TV can choose between Invasion, Severance, the Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation, the acclaimed dystopian series Silo, and the Monsterverse spinoff Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
As if this lineup were not enough, Apple TV also introduced the superb satirical sci-fi series Murderbot in 2025. Starring Alexander Skarsgård as the titular sardonic Murderbot, this series focused on a private security robot who is equally fascinated and disgusted by the peculiarities of human society. Based on author Martha Wells’ eight-book series The Murderbot Diaries, Murderbot season 1 adapts the first of the writer’s novels, All Systems Red.
Murderbot Won’t Return In 2026 Despite Debuting On Apple TV In May 2025
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Murderbot was a huge critical hit, with a staggering Rotten Tomatoes critical score of 95% and an almost equally impressive audience score of 82%. Season 1 of the series followed Murderbot on a mission to protect scientists during a dangerous trip off Earth, with the acid-tongued robot offering constant deadpan commentary on the group’s foibles. However, viewers who hoped to see season 2 of the series arrive this year will be disappointed.
Instead, season 2 guest star Steve Buscemi told ScreenRant that Murderbot’s sophomore outing wouldn’t arrive until summer 2027. Buscemi, who is also set to appear in Hulu’s upcoming reboot of The X-Files, let the season 2 release window’s timeline slip while walking to ScreenRant‘s Tatiana Hullender about his role in director Martin McDonagh’s blackly comic crime thriller Wild Horse Nine.
When Fans Can Expect Murderbot Season 2 To Release
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Image via Apple TV+
Murderbot fans can expect the show’s sophomore outing to drop sometime in the summer of 2027, which puts the show right in the middle of the standard, typical breaks between seasons of streaming series. At the far end of the scale, some of the biggest streaming shows, such as Netflix’s Stranger Things, have been known to take whopping three-year-plus breaks between seasons.
Although Netflix’s Jenna Ortega vehicle Wednesday took similarly lengthy breaks between its seasons, Murderbot‘s two-year gap is a lot more common among streaming shows across the board. Disney’s ambitious fantasy adaptation Percy Jackson & the Olympians had a two-year gap between its first two seasons, although seasons 2 and 3 trimmed this down to a one-year gap by shooting back to back.
This strategy might also be part of the reason that Prime Video’s upcoming historical drama Bloodaxe was renewed for a second season before its first season premiered. Murderbot’s season 1 success could not necessarily have been guaranteed before the sci-fi comedy show debuted in 2025, but the two-year wait for season 2 may be due in part to busy cast schedules.
In contrast, Prime Video’s romance novel series adaptation Off Campus is set to release its second season less than a year after its first since the show shot both outings back to back. After the success of Murderbot season 1, Apple TV may follow this release strategy for seasons 2 and 3, but, in the meantime, the wait for season 2 will sadly extend for another six months or so.
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