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Although there are a lot of exciting sci-fi shows on the way in 2027, one teaser trailer proves that Apple TV’s upcoming adaptation of a classic cyberpunk novel has all of its competitors beaten already. There has never been a better time to be a fan of sci-fi TV. Thanks to the rise of streaming services, a slew of ambitious shows in the genre have expanded what’s possible in the world of small-screen sci-fi.
While The Expanse might be over already, Apple TV’s immersive space opera Foundation is a flawless replacement that deservedly earned a perfect 100% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes in its second and third seasons. Netflix’s Altered Carbon is arguably the best cyberpunk TV show to date, while Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099 might wrestle that title from the 2018 hit’s hands when the spinoff arrives soon.
Meanwhile, Apple TV’s multiverse thriller Dark Matter has only grown more intriguing and unpredictable as the show expands its story beyond its source material, a ploy that paid off handsomely for Hulu’s earlier Margaret Atwood adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale. Clearly, this is a packed field, and it would be hard work for any show to stand out among so many impressive competitors. That’s why it is so impressive that Apple TV’s Neuromancer has already proven itself to be the most exciting sci-fi show of 2027.
Neuromancer Has Successfully Captured William Gibson’s Trippy Vision
Based on the book that inspired The Matrix trilogy, Neuromancer is not the first Gibson adaptation. Prime Video’s underrated one-season classic from 2022, The Peripheral, was based on Gibson’s 2014 novel of the same name, while 1995’s disastrous early Keanu Reeves vehicle Johnny Mnemonic was loosely adapted from an earlier short story by Gibson. However, Neuromancer is the writer’s most iconic work, and his most influential addition to the sci-fi canon.
Alongside author Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Neuromancer is often credited with establishing the central tropes of the cyberpunk genre as a whole. The book’s chaotic story follows the amoral hacker Case, who is hired by a mysterious femme fatale, a genetically augmented “razor girl” named Molly, to enact a risky heist that comes with an irresistible promise for the story’s protagonist.
Case has been locked out of Neuromancer’s virtual online reality/ cyberspace, known as “The Matrix,” after he was caught stealing by his former employers. Molly and her enigmatic crew promise to get Case back into the Matrix if he helps them pull off their heist, but the ensuing noir-inspired misadventure is filled with deceit, deception, death, and double-crossing between numerous realities.
Neuromancer’s 2027 Adaptation Will Be Worth The Wait
If this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is. Not only is Neuromancer steeped in Gibson’s knowledge of the early internet and his imagined ideas for its potential, but the book’s story was also inspired by William S. Burroughs’ already-hallucinatory novel Naked Lunch. Even compared to earlier cyberpunk screen adaptations like the Blade Runner movies, Neuromancer is notably trippy and surreal.
That’s the main reason the book was never adapted before, but the Apple TV show’s first teaser trailer proves the adaptation was worth the wait. From Callum Turner’s taciturn Case to the gruesome body horror of cyberspace neck sockets, Neuromancer looks exactly like the book, which is particularly impressive for a novel where half the time it’s hard to even understand what’s being described.
Even though The Matrix movies came out in the early ‘00s, this trailer makes a convincing case that it wouldn’t have been tehcnologically possible to faithfully translate Gibson’s vision to the screen before 2027. As such, Neuromancer proves that Apple TV’s series can beat the stiff competition to become the genre’s most exciting small-screen release in 2027.
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Showrunner
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Graham Roland
- Directors
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J.D. Dillard
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Peter Sarsgaard
John Ashpool
