Netflix is developing a Philip K. Dick adaptation, which seems like one of its most ambitious sci-fi shows of the decade. There was a time when Netflix, too, was not less experimental with the sci-fi genre than Apple TV. The streaming service gave us some of the most mind-bending and brilliantly weird sci-fi shows like Russian Doll, The OA, and Sense8, among several others in the 2010s.
Unfortunately, in the 2020s, it seems like Netflix has started playing a little too safe with sci-fi. While a handful of its additions to the genre have still been critically acclaimed and commercially successful, most movie and TV sci-fi projects on the streaming service seem far less bold and imaginative than shows like Dark and Travelers.
The Boroughs seemed like a fascinating sci-fi series, but Netflix canceled it after just one season. While The Boroughs' cancellation is disappointing, Netflix might finally level up its sci-fi game with its upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick's story, The World Jones Made. Adapting the original story will not be an easy feat, but that is exactly what makes it exciting.
Netflix's upcoming adaptation, titled The Future Is Ours (El Futuro Es Nuestro), is attempting to deliver a modern take on Philip K. Dick's The World Jones Made. However, in the past, nearly all Philip K. Dick adaptations have struggled to do justice to his original stories. They have either radically changed the plot devices and philosophical underpinnings of his stories or overly simplified them.
For instance, even Ridley Scott's Blade Runner loosely borrows from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? instead of directly adapting it. Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly is no different, while The Man in the High Castle's TV adaptation is even less faithful as it dramatically alters the original story.
Philip K. Dick's The World Jones Made is primarily driven by a character's ability to see one year ahead in the future. Capturing a character's non-linear perception of time in itself is not an easy feat and only a few movies like Denis Villeneuve have been able to capture it in the past. Like most Philip K. Dick stories, even The World Jones Made embraces the weird and the bizarre by introducing some incredibly novel ideas and concepts.
If the show attempts to adopt any of these, it could risk losing the ecological thriller grounding it is attempting to deliver. However, if it drops a lot of these unique elements, it could risk coming off as another Philip K. Dick adaptation that does not honor its source material.
As reports confirm, Netflix's The Future Is Ours is dropping an alien storyline from the original storyline, which ends up becoming a core driver of its themes surrounding the limits of human understanding and humanity's inability to accept uncertainty. This change alone might prompt many Philip K. Dick fans to criticize the show.
The leading character in both the original story and the show is also morally complex and is nothing like a typical hero. Making tragic, cynical heroes rootable in itself is a major challenge many TV shows struggle to overcome.
If The Man in the High Castle is separated from its original Philip K. Dick story, it is an incredible alternate history drama that leaves viewers with many questions surrounding compliance and the complex battle between comfort and rebellion against tyranny. However, as an adaptation, the show drifts a little too far from the original story, which makes it a rather underwhelming Philip K. Dick adaptation.
Acclaimed Spanish director and writer, Mateo Gill, is The Future is Ours' showrunner, and it is a collaborative effort between two production companies: Electric Shepherd Productions (The Man in the High Castle) and K&S Films (The Eternaut).
As story details for Netflix's The Future is Ours reveal, it will recontextualize The World Jones Made into a modern, Latin American-centered eco-dystopia. Instead of featuring the book's post-WWIII backdrop, it will unfold in the year 2047 against the backdrop of an ecological collapse. This change in setting and timeline does not necessarily make it a bad adaptation.
However, the fact that the Netflix adaptation is trying a little too hard to ground the original story in realism is a little concerning. Hopefully, despite these changes, the upcoming Philip K. Dick adaptation will not disappoint and prove to be as ambitious as many viewers are expecting it to be.
The Man in the High Castle is a 2015 dystopian series set in an alternate America, where World War II victors Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan control the divided US. As resistance movements gain traction, unexpected revelations from cryptic films challenge perceptions of truth, stirring conflict and power struggles.
