The First Neuromancer TV Trailer Teases An Iconic Opening
Neuromancer is coming.
On July 1, 1984, two years after Blade Runner, author William Gibson was somehow able to top that cyberpunk aesthetic with his seminal novel Neuromancer. To be clear, Gibson had started writing his world of hackers and augmented people before he saw Blade Runner in 1982, and arguably, the vibe of Neuromancer has influenced various sci-fi subgenres even more than its exact plot. That said, an Apple TV adaptation of Neuromancer is coming, and now, the first teaser for that series seems to indicate the show won’t try to update its 1980s view of the future for the modern age. Instead, it looks like we’re getting a retro future in the new show.
Neuromancer Apple TV teaser
The new teaser trailer doesn’t reveal any of the characters, but it does recreate the opening lines of the novel. We see a human finger press a button on some kind of monitor, which gives us the name “Ashpool 1.” This is a reference to the Tessier-Ashpool family, massive power players in the lore of Neuromancer. The text on the screen reads: “The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel.”
This is the opening line of Neuromancer, one of the most famous opening lines of a science fiction novel ever. With one line, Gibson captured both a throwback noir, or hard-boiled style of writing, and fused that with a future-facing mood. In various retrospective introductions to Neuromancer, Gibson has noted that this famous introduction is inherently anachronistic. A “dead channel” refers to the static of old TV channels, something which today may be something a person in the future tense of the book might never have experienced.
This text, combined with the old-school tech in the trailer, seems to indicate that Neuromancer probably attempts to update the future tech of the novel all that much for the new show. Does this mean that Case will constantly be looking for dial-up connections to get online? Maybe!
Neuromancer Cast and Release Date
There is not yet a release date for the new Neuromancer TV series, though, because the teaser says “the next chapter is loading,” it’s possible it could come later in 2026.
The series stars Callum Turner as Case, the hacker “cowboy” who gets himself involved in a massive caper that pits him against an AI called Wintermute. The show also stars Briana Middleton as Molly Millions, a “razor girl” who teams up with Case. Mark Strong stars as Armitage, and Emma Laird stars as Linda Lee.
Though it inspired The Matrix, there has never been an outright live-action adaptation of Neuromancer. In 1995, Keanu Reeves starred in Johnny Mnemonic, which is based on a Gibson short story that takes place in the same universe as Neuromancer as well as the novels Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero. Johnny’s story is told in flashback by Molly in the novel version of Neuromancer.
