Altered Carbon is an American cyberpunk TV show made by Laeta Kalogridis. It is based on an English book with the same name by Richard K. Morgan that came out in 2002. Takeshi Kovacs, a former soldier who is now an investigator, is let out of prison to solve a murder in a world where the mind can be moved to different bodies.
The first season has ten episodes, and the first one came out on February 2, 2018 on Netflix.
On July 27, 2018, the show was renewed for a second season of eight episodes, which came out on February 27, 2020. On March 19, 2020, an anime movie that takes place before the first season came out. Even though most critics liked the show, it was cancelled after two seasons.
Altered Carbon Plot
The show starts more than 360 years in the future. Most of the first season’s episodes take place in the year 2384 in a futuristic city called Bay City. In the future, a person’s memories and thoughts are stored on a disk-shaped device called a cortical stack, which is implanted in the vertebrae at the back of the neck. This is called digital human freight, or DHF.
These storage devices look like they were made by aliens. They have been reverse-engineered and made in large numbers, but they can only be made with materials from Harlan’s World. “Sleeves” are human or artificial bodies, and stacks can be moved to new bodies after death. However, if a person’s stack is destroyed and there is no backup, they can still die. Only the richest people, who are called “Meths” after Methuselah, have the means to change bodies by using clones and storing their consciousness in satellites.
This way, they don’t have to wait until they die of old age to be resleeved.
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Takeshi Kovacs is the only soldier from the rebel group the Envoys who is still alive. He is a political operative with mercenary skills. The Envoys were defeated in an uprising against the new world order.
In the first season, which takes place 250 years after the Envoys are destroyed, one of the richest people in the settled worlds, Meth Laurens Bancroft, who is 300 years old, breaks his stack out of prison. Bancroft gives him a second chance at life if he can figure out who killed Bancroft. The second season starts in the early 2410s, 30 years after the first. Kovacs, who has a new sleeve, is still looking for his lost love and the leader of the Envoys, Quellcrist Falconer.
Cast and Characters
Takeshi “Tak” Kovacs is played by Joel Kinnaman (season 1 and season 2 flashbacks), Anthony Mackie (season 2), and Ray Chase (Resleeved) as the last Envoy of an elite rebel group that was defeated 250 years before the start of the series. Kinnaman also plays Elias Ryker, a police officer and Ortega’s ex-lover, whose “sleeve” or body Kovacs takes over in season 1. In season 2, Mackie is Kovacs’ new host body.
James Purefoy played Laurens Bancroft in the first season. Bancroft is one of the richest people in the world. He lives in a skyscraper high above the clouds, out of reach of regular people. Bancroft is ruthlessly powerful and wants to be in charge of everyone around him.
Martha Higareda plays Kristin Ortega, a smart and tough lieutenant in the Bay City Police Department who comes from a religious Mexican American family of cops. She was a guest star in season 1.
Chris Conner plays Edgar Poe in the first and second seasons. Edgar Poe is an artificial intelligence (AI) that looks like Edgar Allan Poe and runs the hotel in Bay City that serves as Kovacs’ base of operations.
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Dichen Lachman (season 1; guest season 2) and Elizabeth Maxwell (Resleeved) as Reileen Kawahara/Gina, Kovacs’ sister who had a rough childhood like him, joined the Envoys at the same time he did, and apparently died when the uprising was put down.
Ato Essandoh plays Vernon Elliot, a former Protectorate marine whose wife was jailed and daughter was killed. He was a guest star in season 1.
Kristin Lehman plays Laurens’s wife, Miriam Bancroft, and their daughter, Naomi Bancroft, in the first season. Miriam has her own goals, and Naomi steals her mother’s sleeve.
Lehman said that she was “really intrigued and challenged” to play Miriam because it was different from what she had done before. Her previous experience as a dancer helped her get ready for the part. “She has turned her sexuality into a commodity,” the author says of the character. “I was interested in exploring that part of the character.”
Trieu Tran plays Mister Leung/Ghostwalker in the first season. He is a killer and “fixer” who kills people and fixes problems for an unknown boss.
Renée Elise Goldsberry plays Quellcrist “Quell” Falconer, who was born Nadia Makita and is a master strategist and scientist who made Stacks and was in charge of the Envoys in seasons 1 and 2. She seemed to die when the rebellion was put down, and she also showed up in Kovacs’s dreams and flashbacks. 17: Lela Loren as Danica Harlan, the daughter of the show’s creator Konrad Harlan and the governor of Harlan’s World in season 2.
Simone Missick plays the bounty hunter Trepp (season 2) Dina Shihabi plays Dig 301, an AI archaeologist who makes friends with Poe Torben Liebrecht as Jaeger/Ivan Carrera (season 2), Kovacs’ commanding officer in the CTAC Praetorian and surrogate father, and later the leader of an elite fighting force called The Wedge that works on Harlan’s World. Daniel Bernhardt plays the character’s previous sleeve in recurring roles in seasons 3 and 4.
Altered Carbon Season 3 Release Date
Altered Carbon Season 3 has been cancelled, but Netflix hasn’t said why. The main reason is that the cost of making the show went up and it was hard to film during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The source told THR that Netflix was happy with how the show did, but that “unexpected budget increases” and “efforts to balance the needs and schedules of a large cast” were the main reasons why Altered Carbon Season 3 was cancelled.
But some loyal fans of the show still think that the streamer will be back for the third season of Altered Carbon because it left viewers on the edge of their seats. So, is there any chance that the show will keep going?
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Ratings and Reviews
Both seasons of Altered Carbon were mostly praised by critics. Based on 95 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a 68% approval rating and an average rating of 6.59/10, while Season 2 has an 83% approval rating and an average rating of 7.16/10.
Trailer
Frequently Asked Questions
Will There Be a Season 3 for Altered Carbon?
Altered Carbon Had Bigger Budget Than Game Of Thrones
Kinnaman said it had a “bigger budget than Game of Thrones’ first three seasons,” but he didn’t say how much it cost to make. Then something else was found out. After two seasons, Netflix will end the show on August 26, 2020.
Why Did Altered Carbon Season 3 Get Cancelled?
A person who knew about the decision said that the show was cancelled because of how Netflix usually weighs the cost of a series against how many people watch it.
What Happens in Season 3 of Altered Carbon?
Even though the show is over, the people who worked on it had plans for a third season of Altered Carbon. There was a rumour that Kovacs would be played by a different actor, and that actor would have been a woman. In particular, the show’s producers were trying to get actress Zazie Beetz to play Kovacs in the next season of Altered Carbon.
Conclusion
Altered Carbon is an American cyberpunk TV show made by Laeta Kalogridis. It is based on an English book with the same name by Richard K. Morgan. The first season has ten episodes, and the first one came out on February 2, 2018. In the first season, Takeshi Kovacs takes over the body of Meth Laurens Bancroft. The second season starts in the early 2410s, 30 years after the first.
Kovacs is looking for his lost love and the leader of the Envoys, Quellcrist Falconer. Altered Carbon Season 3 has been cancelled, but Netflix hasn’t said why. Miriam Lehman says she was “really intrigued and challenged” to play Miriam. Renée Elise Goldsberry plays Quellcrist “Quell” Falconer, who was born Nadia Makita. Netflix has cancelled Altered Carbon Season 3.
The main reason is that the cost of making the show went up. It was also hard to film during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, is there any chance that the show will keep going?