‘Neuromancer’ Looks Like 2027's Freakiest Show. Here's Everything We Know

Crazy time to be Callum Turner, who's the reigning next James Bond contender, Dua Lipa's husband, and an all-around rising star. Next on the list? Neuromancer, a splashy prestige sci-fi series for Apple TV.There's a lot of buzz around this adaptation of the seminal 1984 debut novel by William Gibson—one of the early pioneers of the gnarly, endlessly cool, and incredibly '80s subgenre known as “cyberpunk,” a blend of high-tech futurism and punk-rock counterculture, set in future worlds that are run by oppressive governments and evil mega-corporations. (Oh, and pretty much everyone has a bunch of dope cybernetic implants.) Turner is set to play the book's hero, Case, described in the show's official synopsis as a “damaged, top-rung super-hacker who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high-stakes crime with his partner Molly,” played by Briana Middleton.Together, they set about pulling a high-stakes heist on a “corporate dynasty with untold secrets.” The book was set in a Blade Runner-esque near-future version of Japan's Chiba City, and going by all of the Japanese street signs in the trailer, the show looks to be the same. In fact, the whole vibe is extremely similar to the Ridley Scott masterwork: slathered in grit, awash with neon, and surging with trippy low-fi tech visuals. (Plus, check out all those killer jackets and shades. Welcome back, The Matrix!) Check out the trailer below.Online, fans of the OG Neuromancer are appreciably nervous about how the book's batshit universe will translate to screen, or whether it even can. Such fears may be somewhat abated by the direct involvement of Gibson himself, who made himself available to “answer showrunners' and directors' questions about the source material,” plus “read drafts and make suggestions,” per the author's own Twitter page. Further to that, Apple's batting average has been pretty solid in the realm of prestige sci-fi — just look at some of those aforementioned series which have dominated critics' lists and racked up Emmy nominations. The cast is pretty killer, too: beyond Turner and Middleton, the other names include Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, Dane DeHaan and Max Irons.The series is co-created by J. D. Dillard, who directed the 2022 war film Devotion, and Graham Roland, creator of the crime thriller series Dark Winds. (He also has decent stock in the sci-fi TV space, having written on shows like Lost, Fringe and Almost Human.) It's dated for 22 January, and will consist of ten episodes, with a two-episode debut, followed by a traditional weekly release. By that point, we'll probably know if Turner is actually Bond. If he is? Good luck finding time in his schedule for season two.This story originally appeared in British GQ.