Amazon's Upcoming Sci-Fi Thriller Series Will Save A Dying Franchise

2 weeks ago 8

Published Apr 6, 2026, 11:29 AM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Although the RoboCop series seemed like it was dead and gone, Amazon’s rumored reboot could be just what the franchise needs to come back in style in the 2020s. The RoboCop movies belong to a very specific era, with director Paul Verhoeven’s original 1987 classic savagely satirizing the Reagan administration’s heavy-handed, unsuccessful War on Drugs.

The sequels RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3 failed to recapture the original movie's satirical ire, and the less said about the animated show for children, the better. However, it was 2014’s RoboCop remake that proved to be the final nail in the franchise’s coffin. Despite boasting a starry cast, this disappointing re-do lacked the wit and intensity of Verhoeven’s movie.

Amazon's RoboCop Reboot Could Be Perfectly Timed

Although Elite Squad director José Padilha’s remake attempted to offer some meaningful commentary on the state of militarized policing, 2014’s RoboCop was too toothless and self-serious to hit its satirical targets with panache. In contrast, the original RoboCop movie was a shockingly gory riposte to the prevailing politics of its time.

As such, the news that Amazon is working on a reboot of the RoboCop franchise could not be better timed. Between the rise of state surveillance and the many murders committed by numerous real-life law enforcement agencies with impunity in recent months, many of the dystopian elements from the original movie are now more realistic than ever.

Since 2014’s remake became a straightforward action movie that felt more like a soulless studio movie than a smart, satirical take down of contemporary policing, Prime’s reboot must tread carefully. However, the success of Boots Riley’s I’m A Virgo and Apple TV’s Alexander Skarsgard vehicle Murderbot proves that there’s an appetite for smart satire that takes police to task.

RoboCop’s Reboot Arrives At A Great Time For Dystopian Sci-Fi

RoboCop (Peter Weller) removes his helmet to look at Alex Murphy's reflection in RoboCop

Moreover, this proposed RoboCop reboot arrives at a great time for the dystopian sci-fi genre more broadly. In recent years alone, The Last of Us, Fallout, Silo, and Station Eleven all became critical successes in the sci-fi subgenre. The aforementioned Murderbot was another critical darling, while Apple TV’s upcoming William Gibson adaptation, Neuromancer, proves cyberpunk is also making a comeback.

Prime Video’s Blade Runner: 2099 means that the streaming service is already rebooting one of the most iconic ‘80s franchises that blends sci-fi elements with a detective story. After Prime canceled their cyberpunk series The Peripheral far too soon, the streaming service can now make up for this misstep with a RoboCop robot that does justice to the iconic series.