This is unexpected. There’s finally going to be a live-action adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s beloved Mars trilogy of novels. It’s going to be on Spike TV, best known for reality shows like Bar Rescue and Ink Masters (and infinite Cops reruns). But the surprises don’t end there.


First off, Variety says the show will be executive produced by scifi TV guru J. Michael Straczynski and Game of Thrones producer Vince Gerardis, which is cool. Second is that this is Spike’s first scripted drama in nearly a decade, and it’s a hard scifi series—not the “dude” channel’s usual fare at all. But most surprisingly, the channel has ordered the show straight-to-series—meaning it’s completely invested in making the series, before it even sees a pilot.

As the nation’s bro-iest network, I would have been wary of any Spike adaptation of science fiction, but between JMS and Spike’s shocking support for the show even in its most nascent stages, I’d say there’s a good possibility of Red Mars the TV show being watchable at minimum. But will any of Spike’s regular viewers give a crap? That remains to be seen.

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