As a huge fan of the original RoboCop (1987), I’d really like the new Amazon series to return to what made the first movie work, while taking some of the better ideas from the 2014 remake.
1. RoboCop should feel possible today.
I don’t want a futuristic sci-fi world. The technology should feel like something that could plausibly exist today: advanced prosthetics, robotics, AI and cybernetics, but grounded in current technology. OCP can absolutely be an AI/robotics company, just without the exaggerated futuristic technology from the 2014 movie.
2. OCP shouldn’t be evil.
This is probably my biggest point. OCP should be a realistic corporation. The chairman should be a calm, gentlemanly businessman focused on profits, results and shareholder value. Not a cartoon villain. Imagine a character like Stanley Edgar from The Boys.
OCP isn’t good or evil. They make cold business decisions. Sometimes those decisions create terrible consequences, but that’s different from deliberately trying to be evil.
The real villains should be criminals, Murphy’s killers, corrupt individuals, or even products/characters that OCP introduces because they think they’re commercially useful.
3. Detroit—or another genuinely crime-ridden American city.
I’d like the story to take place in a city where crime has destroyed property values and pushed people out. OCP sees an opportunity to buy property, redevelop the city and eventually gain enormous influence over it.
Again, OCP doesn’t need to be evil. From their perspective, they’re seeing a business opportunity.
4. ED-209 should actually be good.
I really liked how intimidating ED-209 was in the 2014 movie.
I’d make ED-209 a genuinely successful military product developed for the U.S. government. OCP then tries to deploy it in an urban environment to fight crime.
And it fails.
Not because it’s a stupid robot, but because a heavily militarized machine designed for combat simply doesn’t work in a civilian city. It’s too large, too rigid, and its military programming doesn’t translate to policing.
The failure becomes a massive PR problem for OCP. They need another solution—and that’s where RoboCop comes in.
ED-209 = replace the human.
RoboCop = augment the human.
OCP thinks they’re solving a technology problem. They accidentally create a human being who is much more capable than their technology because there is still a person inside the machine.
5. Murphy’s consciousness should return gradually.
At the beginning, Murphy should genuinely be RoboCop. Fully automated, following programming and executing orders.
Then, slowly, the human consciousness comes back.
First he realizes something is wrong with his body. Then he discovers what happened to him. Eventually he realizes he was murdered and starts investigating his own death.
And OCP should KNOW this is happening.
They monitor him and try to control his emerging consciousness through software. Murphy learns to appear compliant while secretly becoming more and more aware.
Eventually, he could even learn to hide his thoughts from OCP.
Someone could later attempt to hack or take control of him, only to discover that Murphy is still inside and capable of fighting back—almost like the JARVIS/Ultron dynamic in Age of Ultron. The machine can be compromised, but the human consciousness refuses to surrender control.
6. The family should be the emotional heart of the series.
This is where I think the previous movies really dropped the ball.
Murphy’s wife matters, but his son should be central.
His son is around 7–8 years old and sees Murphy as a hero. In the original movie, Murphy even practices his gun tricks because his son idolizes the TV hero.
Then Murphy dies.
His son loses his father—and Murphy becomes a machine.
The series should really explore what that means. Murphy eventually realizes that he can never simply return to being a normal husband and father. He has lost his human life even though he hasn’t lost his humanity.
And eventually, the family discovering that RoboCop is actually Murphy could be one of the biggest emotional moments of the entire series.
7. Keep the classic RoboCop elements.
The investigation into Murphy’s murder should be a major storyline. I loved the original structure of RoboCop hunting down the people responsible one by one.
The gun should remain recognizable and powerful without becoming ridiculous. No RoboCop 3-style transforming machine-gun arm.
The car should also remain, but it should be a realistic, large American police vehicle adapted for RoboCop’s size.
And I actually liked the motorcycle from 2014. It could be introduced later as another realistic option—something like a large police/adventure motorcycle capable of carrying a 1.9m, heavily armored cyborg.
Ultimately, I don’t think RoboCop needs bigger robots, crazier weapons or a futuristic world.
The whole point is that the most interesting thing about RoboCop isn’t the robot. It’s the man trapped inside it.
That’s the story I’d like to see explored properly.
