Rashida Jones Unveils an AI-Driven Mystery in AppleTV+ Series ‘Sunny’

The old showbiz adage that you should never work with children or animals needs an update.

“Robots should be on that list,” says Katie Robbins, the creator and showrunner of the Apple TV+ series “Sunny.” The 10-episode drama, produced by A24 and starring Rashida Jones, is set in a near-future Japan, where household “homebots” have become ubiquitous, doing housework, offering emotional support and bearing more than a little resemblance to Pepper, SoftBank’s now-discontinued humanoid robot.

Rather than using CGI to create the series’ title character, Robbins, director Lucy Tcherniak and their creative team worked with New Zealand’s Wētā Workshop to create an animatronic robot that could interact with the cast.