Netflix’s Bass X Machina unleashes steampunk cowboys, mechanical minotaurs and a suspiciously familiar name
Netflix is preparing to unleash Bass X Machina, a new adult animated steampunk Western featuring giant mechanical monsters, heavily armed outlaws and a cowboy with a cybernetic arm who appears to have a somewhat confrontational attitude towards enormous brass livestock. The series arrives on 3 November 2026, presumably after somebody has finished polishing all the rivets.
The latest preview, entitled Minotaur Fight, introduces us to a particularly antisocial mechanical bull running amok in a frontier town. Our hero, Bass, and his companions find themselves facing a charging heap of metallic bovine hostility. It’s the sort of situation where your average Western gunslinger might consider moving to a quieter town, preferably one with a strict ban on experimental robotics.
Inspired by the remarkable life of real American lawman Bass Reeves, the series reimagines the Wild West as an industrial nightmare infested with murderous machinery and supernatural horrors. Reeves was a former slave who became a legendary deputy US marshal. Rather than giving him the conventional Hollywood biographical treatment, however, Netflix has apparently decided that what his story really needs is more robot death bulls. Fair enough. Nobody ever complained that Unforgiven lacked historical accuracy because Clint Eastwood didn’t have a mechanical shotgun arm.
Brian Tyree Henry, whose previous credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Bullet Train, voices Bass and serves as an executive producer. He’s joined by Janelle Monáe as Glory, Tati Gabrielle as Dana and Cree Summer as Ahni, alongside Chaske Spencer, Currie Graham and Starletta DuPois.
The series comes from creator LeSean Thomas, previously responsible for Yasuke and Cannon Busters, with animation courtesy of South Korea’s Studio Mir, whose previous work includes Devil May Cry and X-Men ’97. Consequently, we’re expecting something rather more visually ambitious than the traditional Saturday morning cartoon in which a cowboy spends twenty minutes trying to catch an unusually intelligent rabbit.
There is a serious story lurking beneath all the mechanical mayhem. Bass is a father attempting to protect his family in a violent frontier society, gradually finding himself obliged to become judge, jury and executioner. Every act of justice risks destroying the very relationships he’s fighting to preserve. It’s a familiar Western moral dilemma, although John Wayne seldom had to worry about his enemies being assembled from twelve tonnes of cast iron.
The production also looks determined to inject some fresh energy into the genre. Henry has spoken about wanting to explore the largely neglected presence of Black and Indigenous people in the American West, while abandoning the dusty conventions of the traditional cowboy drama. Throw in a musical contribution from Janelle Monáe, whose original song Sand accompanies the series, and we may have a Western that sounds as interesting as it looks.
Of course, here at SFcrowsnest, there’s another curious aspect to Bass X Machina that we cannot possibly allow to pass without comment.
That name.
Back in 2007, British science fiction and fantasy author Stephen Hunt published The Court of the Air, one of the novels that helped propel steampunk into its modern literary revival. Among its many peculiar inhabitants and inventions was the Hexmachina, an ancient god-machine slumbering deep within the planet, awaiting its opportunity to play an exceptionally large part in humanity’s destiny.
Now, nearly twenty years later, Netflix has produced a steampunk adventure featuring someone with mechanical enhancements and the title Bass X Machina.
Coincidence? Almost certainly. Both names are playing with the venerable Latin theatrical expression deus ex machina, meaning a god from the machine, so no actual connection between the productions has been established. And a cowboy called Bass Reeves rather conveniently supplies the Bass part of the equation.
Nevertheless, we prefer to imagine an exhausted Netflix development executive emerging from a secret underground archive, clutching a battered copy of The Court of the Air, before announcing that he’s had the most astonishingly original idea involving steampunk, mechanical monstrosities and a name ending in Machina.
Should Mr Hunt expect a substantial royalty cheque, a cameo role or at least a small ceremonial brass plaque acknowledging his contribution to the genre? Probably not. Although if Netflix wishes to commission an animated adaptation of the Jackelian novels, we’re quite sure the relevant author could be persuaded to stop laughing long enough to answer the telephone.
In the meantime, Bass X Machina looks thoroughly entertaining on its own merits. Its mixture of alternate history, anime-influenced action and industrial-age monstrosities should appeal to anyone who believes the Wild West suffered primarily from a disappointing shortage of enormous fighting robots.
Netflix’s latest preview certainly suggests that the animators have a healthy appreciation for the traditional steampunk principle that no problem is so small it cannot be solved with an unnecessarily complicated mechanical contraption.
And if you’re going to bring a gun to a bullfight, make absolutely certain the bull doesn’t have machine guns of its own.
Watch the Bass X Machina Minotaur Fight preview on YouTube.
Bass X Machina premieres on Netflix on 3 November 2026.
