I don’t usually write reviews of trailers. And certainly not of teasers, which mostly consist of just a few evocative images, quick cuts, and a booming sound effect anyway.

But I’ll make an exception for this one. Apple TV’s “Neuromancer.”

Ever since I first heard years ago that William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” was going to be adapted into a series, I’ve been skeptical.
Not just a little skeptical. Not that cautious “Well, we’ll see” kind of skeptical.
No!—I’m very—ultra—super-SKEPTICAL!!

Because we’re not talking about just any science fiction novel that you can just take, modernize, and dress up with a few neon lights, holographic billboards, and people in black leather jackets.
We’re talking about William Gibson’s “Neuromancer”. — THE cyberpunk novel.
The novel that invented the genre—literally!
This isn’t just any old material. It’s a cornerstone. A sacred text. A novel whose ideas, imagery, and concepts continue to resonate in countless movies, TV shows, games, and books to this day.

You shouldn’t just jump into something like this simply because some studio has decided that cyberpunk is trendy again and will probably sell really well.
Material like this should be handled with kid gloves. With respect. With an understanding of the source material. And above all, with the clear goal of creating a film adaptation that does the novel justice.
Or you should just leave it alone.

Of course, there are people who’ll say, “But just look at *The Lord of the Rings*, *Harry Potter*, or *Game of Thrones* up to Season 4. Those are adaptations that do justice to their source material, too.”
Yes. They are. But they were also created in a different era.
In today’s world of productions driven by marketing departments, target audience analyses, and profit optimization, many of these films and series would likely no longer be made in the same way.
Today, everything has to appeal to as many target audiences as possible at the same time. No one should be scared off. Every character needs a clear marketing value. Every rough edge has to be smoothed out. Everything has to become more accessible, bigger, faster, and simpler.
In the end, this often results in something that looks technically elaborate and visually impressive but no longer possesses any of the qualities that actually made the original special. See “Rings of Power.”
Okay, “Neuromancer” has at least landed on Apple TV.
That’s probably one of the few things that gives me any peace of mind at all. Apple TV produced “For All Mankind,” one of the best series of recent years. So they’ve at least proven that they can pull off sophisticated science fiction without immediately turning everything into some kind of special-effects circus.

But still, I remain skeptical. Very skeptical. Ultra-skeptical. Super-SKEPTICAL!!
And to be honest, I don’t even know if I’ll watch the series at all.
Because sometimes it’s better to keep a beloved story in your head just as you experienced it while reading, rather than watching an adaptation tear it apart piece by piece.

But let’s get to the teaser.

And I’m afraid I have to say:
It feels better than I feared. — Yes, unfortunately.
Because actually, it would have been easier if the teaser had just looked bad. Then I could have said, “Okay, that’s exactly what I expected,” and that would have been the end of it for me.
But the teaser doesn’t make it that easy for me.

What you see of the world actually looks like cyberpunk.
Not just like a glossy city with neon signs that some producer thinks is cyberpunk, but like a world that at least has a certain affinity with Gibson’s vision.
Dirty, artificial, alien, and yet strangely familiar.

The effects, too—especially the depiction of the Cyberspace matrix—look good. Nice and old-school.
Not too clean. Not too modern. Not like some generic digital interface from a recent superhero movie. Cyberspace feels abstract and artificial. As if you were actually immersing yourself in a foreign digital world and not just looking at a particularly expensive computer screen. I like that.
And yes, it annoys me a little that I like it.

I can also place many of the scenes shown. At least, I think I can. After all, it’s been a while since I read the novel. But a lot of it feels familiar. You can tell that at least someone has familiarized themselves with the source material. Unfortunately, that’s no longer a given these days.

Then we come to the main characters. And that’s where it gets complicated. Because, unfortunately, they’re only almost right.

Armitage is a very good fit, as far as one can tell from the few images available. He has that controlled, cool, and at the same time slightly eerie aura that I expect from the character.
With him, I immediately had the feeling: Yes, this could work.

And then there’s Molly. Molly is spot-on. Really.
She looks as if she stepped right out of the novel and into the series.
Her posture, her gaze, her presence—it all fits. The team has clearly put a lot of effort into this. Probably also because they’re fully aware that Molly is one of the characters fans will be paying particularly close attention to. With a character like Molly, you can’t afford a half-hearted portrayal. And at least visually, they seem to have understood that.

Which brings us to Case.
And this is exactly where everything falls apart for me again.
As I’ve said many times before: Callum Turner is too old for the role. And now that we can actually see him as Case, it’s even more obvious.
In the novel, Case is about 24 years old—twenty-four.
He’s young. Broken, worn out, and emotionally drained, yes—but still young. That’s precisely what makes up an important part of his character. He isn’t just some world-weary man who’s been struggling with his life for decades. He’s a young person who’s already destroyed himself.
That’s a difference.
And then they cast an actor who’s 35 and looks 35.
This isn’t a Michael J. Fox effect, where a significantly older actor can easily pass for a much younger character.
Callum Turner looks like a grown man in his mid-thirties. And in my opinion, Case shouldn’t look like a grown man in his mid-thirties.
Of course, I have nothing against Callum Turner as a person. And I’m not saying he’s a bad actor either. That’s not the point at all. He just doesn’t fit the role for me. — Not at all.

And that’s especially frustrating because the rest of the cast could look amazing.

In scenes with Molly, Armitage, and the other characters, I’m immediately drawn into this world. For a few seconds, I think: Okay, maybe they actually got it. Maybe this really could be *Neuromancer*. And then Case appears. And instantly, I’m pulled right back out. Completely. The illusion is gone.
The *Neuromancer* vibe that had just started to build up collapses instantly.
It’s as if my mind is saying with every scene: That’s not Case. That’s an actor in his mid-thirties dressed up as Case.
Maybe that’s unfair. Maybe it works better in the finished series. Maybe Turner’s performance is so convincing that I’ll eventually be able to look past his age. But after watching this teaser, I can’t do that yet.

Conclusion:

I’m pleasantly surprised. Very pleasantly, in fact.
At least visually. The world looks better than I expected. The cyberspace matrix works. Many of the images actually look as if they could come from a serious “Neuromancer” adaptation.
Molly’s portrayal, in particular, surprised me. The creators seem to know what fans want to see and what they look for in these characters.
That gives me hope.
And that’s exactly why Case’s casting bothers me all the more.

If the entire teaser were bad, I could just write the series off. But the teaser doesn’t look bad. On the contrary.
It looks incredibly promising in many places. And then there’s Callum Turner as Case—and he yanks me right out of the world every single time.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe no one else is bothered by it.

But for me, Case isn’t just some minor character whose casting you can overlook. He’s the center of the story. If Case doesn’t work for me, then the entire series has a problem.

Let’s wait and see what a real trailer shows and what the series looks like when it premieres in January.

Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe Callum Turner will win me over. But right now, I’m afraid the Case problem will remain.

And with “Neuromancer” of all things, that’s no small problem.