Murder Drones is an Australian adult independent-animated comedy horror web series created, written, and directed by Liam Vickers and produced by Glitch Productions. The series revolves around two factions of autonomous robotsâÂÂworker drones and disassembly dronesâÂÂfollowing the extinction of humans on their planet, and a rebellious worker drone who accidentally befriends a disassembly drone. Together, they uncover an eldritch force that threatens their post-apocalyptic world.
The pilot episode premiered on Glitch's YouTube channel on 29 October 2021. The remaining seven episodes were released from 18 November 2022 to 23 August 2024. The show made it on to Amazon Prime Video on 16 May 2025. The series received positive reviews from critics for its animation, voice acting, action sequences, cinematography, and plot, though its pacing and humour have received criticism. The series received three nominations for a Webby Award in the Best Animated Video category, winning two.
The series occurs in 3071 on Copper 9, an Earth analog owned by the megacorporation JC Jenson (a parody of SC Johnson). Worker Drones, autonomous robots designed to serve humans, inhabit the planet and harvest it for natural resources. The planet suddenly suffers a catastrophic core collapse, wiping out all biological life on the planet, including humans. As a result, the planet becomes a frozen wasteland, and only the Worker Drones remain. One day, three violent killing machines known as Disassembly DronesâÂÂnicknamed "Murder Drones"âÂÂinvade Copper 9 to exterminate the remaining Worker Drones. The Worker Drones live in constant fear of the Murder Drones and hide behind a series of blast doors, in an attempt to protect themselves.
The protagonist of the series is Uzi Doorman, an angsty teenage Worker Drone who plans to defeat the murderous drones and save her kind. In the process, she forms an unlikely partnership with two of the Murder DronesâÂÂN, a drone with a friendly and curious disposition toward Worker Drones; and V, a sadist who is purposely elusive about her history with NâÂÂand works with them to uncover the truth about their origins and purpose in the planet's harsh environment.
Every episode is written and directed by Liam Vickers.
Liam Vickers had previously achieved online attention for his 2D animated series CliffSide and Internecion Cube, both currently unfinished. He first pitched Murder Drones to Glitch Productions with some early concept art and story, before becoming the series' writer and director.
Murder Drones is animated on Autodesk Maya and Unreal Engine. Including the pilot, the series lasted 8 episodes. It pushes into darker territory while making it more photorealistic than previous shows on Glitch. This series (alongside Meta Runner) also marks to many fans a departure from the Machinima style often associated with Glitch, as its co-founder Luke Lerdwichagul is well-known for his channel SMG4, which posts Super Mario parodies videos.
On 6 August 2021, Vickers released the full version of "Disassembly Required", the song that plays in the teaser. The video description reveals the character seen in the teaser to be "V", one of the titular Murder Drones. By the time the series was announced, it had been worked on for one year until 18 February 2022, when Glitch Productions announced that the full series was in development now at the studio and would be released later in 2022. The show ended with the eighth and final episode released on 23 August 2024.
On 16 May 2025, all eight episodes of the series were made available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
A Kickstarter for a graphic novel adaptation to be published under Oni Press was created on 8 September 2025, reaching its goal the same day. The first issue of the graphic novel released in February 2026.
Prior to the release of the pilot episode, Lauren Rouse of Gizmodo Australia praised the character designs and visuals. Common Sense Media reviewer Melissa Camacho said that the show "combines dark humour, dystopian themes, and fantasy violence to tell a good story." Joel Keller of Decider praised the characters and CGI and complimented the "zooms and shaky 'camera' work" for making the action sequences more immersive. Writer GiovanH criticised the show for being hard to follow due to the fast pacing, excessive humour and poor visual language. Despite this, he praised the plot, CGI, voice acting and soundtrack, writing that "it really intentionally embraces the edgy random mid-2000s teen vibe."
In 2023 and 2024, the series earned a nomination for a Webby Award in the category of Best Animated Video and won it in the same category in the 2024 edition. It was also nominated for the Scripted (Series & Channels) category for the 2025 edition, later winning that category. Meanwhile, the voice actress for Uzi, Elsie Lovelock, won the 2023 edition of One Voice Awards UK in the Animation - Best Character Performance - Female category for her portrayal of the character.
|- ! rowspan="2" scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2023 | Webby Award | Animation (Series & Channels) Video | Murder Drones | | |- | One Voice Awards UK 2023 | Animation - Best Character Performance - Female | Elsie Lovelock - "Uzi - Murder Drones" | rowspan="3" | |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2024 | Webby Award | Animation (Series & Channels) Video | Murder Drones | |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" | 2025 | Webby Award | Scripted (Series & Channels) | Murder Drones |