New RoboCop TV series executive produced by James Wan might start filming in January

Back in 2022, Amazon closed an $8.5 billion acquisition of the film studio MGM, giving them ownership of the studio’s thousands of films and TV shows. In 2023, we heard that the six MGM properties Amazon was most interested in doing something with were Poltergeist, Stargate, The Thomas Crown Affair, Legally Blonde, Rocky, and RoboCop… and it appears that was accurate, because we’ve heard updates on all of those projects since then. In 2024, it was announced that a new RoboCop TV series would be moving forward with James Wan, the director of such films as Saw, The Conjuring, and Aquaman, on board as executive producer. Now, World of Reel reports that a six-month shoot is being planned for the series, starting next January in Vancouver. According to the site, Wan will even be directing key episodes.

What do we know about the new RoboCop TV series?

Peter Ocko (Lodge 49) has been hired to write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner on the series. Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett are executive producing through their company Atomic Monster, while Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. The series is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven from a screenplay by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, the 1987 film RoboCop has the following synopsis: In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company’s nefarious plans, he turns on his masters. 

The movie was followed by sequels RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993), an animated series that ran for one season in 1988, a live-action TV series that ran for one season in 1994, a 2001 mini-series called RoboCop: Prime Directives, and a 2014 remake, as well as video games, comic books, toys, clothing, and other merchandise.

The new TV series has the following official logline: A giant tech conglomerate collaborates with the local police department to introduce a technologically advanced enforcer to combat rising crime — a police officer who’s part man, part machine.

Rumor: A New RoboCop?

World of Reel adds, “the series will debut a new cybernetic lawman named Marc Kyle. Unlike Peter Weller’s Alex Murphy in Verhoeven’s ’87 original, Kyle will start off as a soldier rather than a police officer. Just as Murphy does in the first RoboCop, Marc Kyle will die—in a war rather than at the hands of crooks—before being remade as a cyborg and beginning his new life under Murphy’s tutelage.“

It’s worth noting that a Production List page that was last updated in early May also has this Marc Kyle information on it. They only disagree about the shooting location, as their site says the RoboCop TV series will be filming in Toronto rather than Vancouver.

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