Dan Stevens Has the Same Concerns About His Robocop As You

This week saw the surprise casting of Dan Stevens as Robocop in the upcoming Amazon series of the same name. He’s definitely a fascinating choice, but to the surprise of no one, the overwhelming reaction to this project has been “Please don’t.”

The original is a bonafide ’80s classic whose magic rests in being a product of its time and the fevered genius of director Paul Verhoeven. Both of those elements are missing for the Amazon series, and we already saw how their absence led to the inert Joel Kinnaman reboot in 2014. To his credit, Stevens shares those concerns.

In a new interview with Comic Book, he makes it clear that he’s keenly aware of the shadow cast by the original:

Stevens revealed that for him it’s not only about a lifelong love for the film but about his hope that they can preserve two of its biggest qualities.

“Oh my god, I mean so many things,” Stevens said. “That original is one of my favorite films of all time. For me and so many of my friends it was such an iconic movie; I think maybe one of the first exposures to extreme violence and also satire. I think that’s what I’m most looking forward to, hopefully preserving those elements.”

After the success of Alien: Earth — a good show that was good — I’m willing to give this latest stab at Robocop a fair shake. To play nerdy gatekeeper here, which I never recommend, the original movie is literally one of the first Criterion Collection DVDs I ever bought. My buddies and I watched that thing at least once in a week in college for an entire semester. The classic is burned into my brain.

That said, we’re talking about a robot cop who’s been adapted 800 ways to Sunday in comic books, video games, and even a TV series. What’s one more bite at the apple? All I ask is they nail the look of the original suit. Don’t Batman it up like whatever the heck happened in the Kinnaman reboot. That was the first red flag.