Dan Stevens Cast as the New RoboCop

Your move, Dan Stevens.

Meet the new RoboCop. Stevens — known for projects like Downton Abbey, Legion, The Guest, and the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast — will portray the title character in the upcoming RoboCop TV series coming to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. The series is based on the iconic 1980s sci-fi film directed by Paul Verhoeven. In that film and its sequel, RoboCop was portrayed by actor Peter Weller. (In the most recent attempt at a RoboCop reboot, a movie from 2014, ’Cop was played by Joel Kinnaman.)

The series has been described as the story of “a giant tech conglomerate [that] convinces the city to place a powerful robot on its police force – a robot implanted with the consciousness of a beloved, fallen officer.” That certainly suggests it is a back-to-basics reboot of the entire RoboCop concept.

James Wan is producing the new RoboCop through his Atomic Monster production company. In a statement, Wan said

I’ve been a massive fan of RoboCop forever, so getting to help bring this world to television is a dream. What Paul Verhoeven created in 1987 was decades ahead of its time, and its questions about technology, identity, and who corporations really serve have only grown more urgent. With Peter’s distinctive vision and bold approach to storytelling, and alongside Ed and our partners at Amazon MGM Studios, we’re working to honor what made the original iconic and highlight its relevancy in this modern, tech-driven world, while building something unmistakably new for a global audience.

If you want to see if Stevens will make a good RoboCop, here’s what you do. Take your hand cover up the top half of his face in the picture above. How’s his mouth and chin look? Good? Great, then he’s perfect for the role. (Hmm, a RoboCop with a mustache ... just the bold sort of reinvention a modern reboot needs!)