'Altered Carbon' Spoilers: New Images Tease Brutal Fate for Someone; Is the Series Deviating From the Book?

Things easily get gruesome in the first-look images for the upcoming Netflix series "Altered Carbon."

Based on the 2002 hardboiled cyberpunk science fiction novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan, the series stars Joel Kinnaman as Takeshi Kovacs, a former U.N. elite soldier who has been in suspended animation.

In "Altered Carbon," he is awoken by Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy) who seeks the interstellar warrior's help to solve a murder — that of his own. A couple of images shared by TVLine show a glimpse of Kovacs.

In the first still, he is featured with a character named Poe (Chris Connor). In the second one, the protagonist is seen with Vernon Elliott (Ato Essandoh). Examining the image, fans would notice that the Envoy, his shirt old bloodied up, is holding a severed head.

Fans who read the book feel like "Altered Carbon" could be deviating from the source material. The second image puts them all the more under that impression since they do not remember Vernon taking part in that gory affair.

Of course, not much can be gleaned from the image as far as the plot goes so it is possible that Vernon arrived after Kovacs did the bloody job.

After all, Kovacs severing someone's head does happen in the novel at some point so the "Altered Carbon" series might not be all that different from the source. For now, however, it is too early to speculate. Fans will likely see more of the series adaptation when its release draws closer.

"Altered Carbon" is set five hundred years into the future, a time where humans have figured out a way to sustain life in other extrasolar planets that the United Nations Protectorate now oversees. Kovacs hails from the Harlan's World, a planet settled by a Japanese keiretsu with Eastern European labor.

The "Altered Carbon" series hits Netflix Feb. 2.