Prime Video's Upcoming Sci-Fi Show Updates One Of The Greatest Cyberpunk Franchises

It is a great time for small-screen cyberpunk sci-fi, as Prime Video’s forthcoming reboot of one iconic franchise means that yet another great series will soon return to screens again. Even though Star Trek: The Original Series debuted back in the ‘60s and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s best episodes aired in the ‘90s, it is still fair to say that there has never been a better time to be a fan of sci-fi TV. Even the golden age of Lost’s greatest episodes can’t compare to the smorgasbord of sci-fi offerings on streaming.

Netflix has Altered Carbon, Black Mirror, Dark, Love, Death & Robots, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and Sense8, while Apple TV has The Expanse replacement Foundation, the post-apocalyptic thriller Silo, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Severance, and Dark Matter. Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099 means the streaming service is also part of this conversation, as does their earlier underrated William Gibson adaptation The Peripheral.

That series, much like Blade Runner 2099 and the upcoming Apple TV Gibson adaptation Neuromancer, proves that the cyberpunk subgenre is enjoying a particularly prominent revival on the small screen. Perhaps it is due to cultural anxieties around AI, perhaps it is a response to the increasing prevalence of surveillance technology, or perhaps it is simply because the cyberpunk aesthetic never stopped looking cool. Whatever the cause, almost every major cyberpunk franchise is back with a bang, including Robocop.

Prime Video’s Robocop Reboot Promises To Bring Back An Iconic Cyberpunk Series

Beginning in 1987 with Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven’s R-rated satirical action thriller Robocop, the Robocop franchise includes a trio of original live-action movies, a 2014 live-action reboot, two live-action TV shows, Robocop and Robocop: Prime Directives, and two animated spinoff shows aimed at children, 1988’s Robocop and 1998’s Robocop: Alpha Commando. With a slew of video games, comic books, and a novelization to its name, the series is a massive franchise.

However, it is also one that never regained the acclaim enjoyed by its controversial first movie, 1987’s Robocop. An absurdly gruesome tour de force that made the Blade Runner movies seem downright stolid, Verhoeven’s brutal gore fest was, like his later military sci-fi Starship Troopers, a not-so-subtle indictment of militarized policing and right-wing attitudes toward “Law and order.” As the franchise progressed, this satire fell to the wayside, with Robocop 3 unironically endorsing many of the fascist values Verhoeven’s movie critiqued.

Luckily, with the co-creators and co-writers of Robocop, Michael Miner and Ed Neumeier, on board as executive producers, Prime Video’s upcoming Robocop reboot can avoid this mistake. James Wan, himself no stranger to campy, subversive satire, will produce the show via Blumhouse Atomic Monster, while Peter Ocko will serve as the show’s showrunner. Ocko’s history on the sci-fi show Moonhaven, bodes well, but so does his unlikely involvement with the iconic 2020s sitcom The Office.

Prime Video’s Robocop Must Avoid The Pitfalls Of 2014’s Earlier Reboot

Ocko worked on season 7 of The Office, meaning the showrunner can be trusted to bring back the corporate satire that animated the original Robocop back in 1987. While 2014’s Robocop reboot made an admirable stab at addressing the structural issues with policing, its glum, dour tone was a far cry from the campy silliness of Verhoeven’s ultra-violent original movie.

By bringing back the all-important tongue-in-cheek humor that made Robocop stand out amid a sea of cyberpunk movies in the late ‘80s, the Prime Video show can ensure that it isn’t overshadowed by the many other sci-fi shows on streaming. The competition is stiff, since Severance offers dark corporate sci-fi satire, Neuromancer and Blade Runner 2099 offer cyberpunk action, and Apple TV’s Murderbot even offers viewers a dark, bloody satire of mechanized private security in a dystopian future. Still, if handled right, Prime Video’s Robocop reboot could prove the franchise still has something unique to say in 2026.