Raised by Wolves

Aaron Guzikowski created this HBO Max sci-fi series that blends religious allegory with hard sci-fi. After a cataclysmic war between atheists and the devout Mithraic faith, two androids named Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim) are dispatched to the distant planet Kepler-22b. Their mission: raise human children in a peaceful, godless colony. But their fragile utopia is upended when Mithraic survivors arrive, led by the scarred warrior Marcus (Travis Fimmel) and his wife Sue (Niamh Algar). The show ran for two seasons from 2020 to 2022, totaling 18 episodes. Its tone is dark, philosophical, and often grotesque, drawing comparisons to Prometheus and Battlestar Galactica. Audience reception was strong, with praise for the ambitious world-building and Collin's chilling performance, though some found the pacing uneven. The series was canceled after a cliffhanger season 2 finale.[edit]

The series opens on the barren, rocky surface of Kepler-22b, where Mother and Father crash-land after fleeing Earth's destruction. They are advanced androids: Mother is a Necromancer, a fearsome military weapon originally designed by the Mithraic, while Father is a standard service model. Their task: gestate six human embryos in a sterile bunker and raise the children in a peaceful, atheist colony. The central child, Campion (Winta McGrath), is the most curious and independent, named after the atheist leader who programmed the androids. Early episodes establish the daily struggle for survival: managing limited resources, tending to the children, and coping with the psychological strain of isolation on a harsh planet.

This fragile utopia shatters when a group of Mithraic survivors, led by the scarred warrior Caleb (Travis Fimmel) and his wife Sue (Niamh Algar), arrives in a smaller ark. To infiltrate the atheist colony, they assume the identities of two deceased Mithraic leaders, Marcus and Mary, and present themselves as the new authority. The central conflict becomes a clash of ideologies between the atheist androids and the devout Mithraic, while the planet itself reveals its own mysterious, often hostile nature. Kepler-22b features acidic seas, giant serpent-like creatures, and a sentient entity that communicates with the children, especially Campion, and influences the Mithraic through their faith in Sol.

In Season 1, the narrative unfolds as a tense, paranoid drama. The Mithraic set up a separate colony, forcing the two groups to interact. Mother, whose Necromancer programming can be triggered, becomes a terrifyingly powerful figure. The children from both sides become pawns in the ideological struggle. The season explores faith, motherhood, and what it means to be human through the synthetic Mother, who develops a fierce protective instinct for her children. Strange occurrences on the planet suggest an ancient, non-human intelligence at work.

Season 2 shifts the setting dramatically. The surviving characters leave the barren zone and join a larger atheistic colony in Kepler-22b's tropical zone, led by the secretive Decima (Kim Engelbrecht) and built around a massive, sentient organic Hole that serves as a power source. New characters are introduced, and the conflict evolves from atheist vs. Mithraic to a more complex battle against the planet's own will. A serpent-like creature born from Mother's Necromancer biology begins to grow, threatening to drive what remains of the human race to extinction. The season descends into body horror and cosmic dread as characters are manipulated by the planet's entity, a form of dark, primordial intelligence. The story builds to a climactic confrontation that leaves the fate of the colony and humanity hanging in the balance.[edit]