2026’s First Monster Sci-Fi Learned The Perfect Lesson From Jaws [Exclusive]

Worldbreaker takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the Earth is, well, broken. Monstrous creatures known as Breakers have emerged from below the planet’s surface, ravaging the lands and warping infected humans into hybrids. Nearly unstoppable, only decapitation seems to halt their advances. The movie follows young Willa and her dad as they flee the mainland to seek solace and safety on a remote island. But when a girl washes up on shore, that security soon comes to a terrifying end.

Director Brad Anderson (Session 9) spoke to ComicBook about building a better monster, swordplay, the father-daughter hook, and Willa’s heroic journey. 

ComicBook: Worldbreaker is a genre cocktail. There is action, family drama, and monsters in a post-apocalyptic setting. What elements specifically hooked you about the script?

Brad Anderson: I like the cocktail description. I think it is that. That’s maybe why I like a good cocktail. A strong cocktail. At its core, I thought this had the genre elements that you described … The thrill elements. The scares. The suspense. The weird sci-fi components. But at its core, there’s this family, this father-daughter relationship. That, to me, was maybe the biggest selling point. That allows you to connect. And there’s something at stake, of course. This relationship between a father and daughter, who are trying to survive this world that has gone mad, and trying to keep your child safe. But also knowing that at some point, you have to let your child go off in the world and battle the demons that are out there. And training her and getting ready for her to become an adult. 

It’s almost like a coming-of-age story. I love that aspect of it, in the context of the genre stuff, too, like creature-feature stuff. I hadn’t really done a movie like that before, so that was a draw. In the end, what other movies I have done that have a similar cocktail of different themes, this one had that when I read Joshua Rollins’ script. I was moved by it. I was also drawn by the creepiness, but it was the emotional core of it that has to be, in my mind, interesting and make it work on more than one level.

As you mentioned, the father-daughter dynamic is front and center. How did you want to see Willa grow over this chaotic period?

It’s just about seeing her eyes open to the world. She’s a little naïve in the beginning. Willa’s been shielded from the world. Her parents are like helicopter parents. They keep you away from the horrors of the world. That can work to a degree, but when the world breaks, the world breaks. You can’t just shield your child. You have to prepare your child to become a hero. That’s kind of the story here. It’s a bit of a hero’s journey for Willa, dad and mom preparing her for the world that lies ahead and how she rises to the challenge.

You see that in the story, and you kind of see her grow as a character and make mistakes and fail, but also get back up, get back on her feet, dust off her hands, and get back into it. The ending is really where she has to throw off her child-like clothes and pick up the sword and become the hero that maybe her mother is. I sort of love that trajectory in the script. When we were working with Billie Boullet, who plays the character Willa, trying to find that performance so she becomes stronger and more capable as the story progresses.

Luke Evans and Milla Jovovich, who portray Willa’s parents, are old pros when it comes to green screen and action. How did you help Billie navigate those beats since she is not as adept in those areas?  

Just really trying to tell her what she is seeing. Sometimes it is me on the mic, like, “This is what you are watching. The monster is coming at you. It is opening its jaws.” I kinda animate the scene, in a way, for her. And Luke and Milla were great as teachers for her. As you said, they have done a lot of this kind of stuff, so they were giving her pointers. We shot this in Northern Ireland, in the cold and the wet. All the exteriors were not comfortable to shoot on, so it wasn’t hard for her to get into the spirit of the post-apocalyptic sensibility. She was able to channel that. But, like all good actors, Billie has a good imagination. When I showed her pictures of what these things were going to look like, we had a model of one of these Breakers so she could see it. It kinda freaked her out and she was able to get into it that way. 

It’s a tall order these days to create a creature audiences haven’t seen before. Conceptually, what was your vision from page to screen for the Breakers?

On the page, they weren’t really described much, as is sometimes the case. Josh put in vague descriptions of these enormous monsters, so we started from scratch, which was fun. I think we just started with the idea that if they are coming from deep in the Earth, that they are subterranean animals. We wanted them to feel like evolutionarily and biologically that this is what the creatures might evolve into, if over the millennia they evolved down below. They are insect-like, but also weirdly human-like, as well. That’s always creepy when you throw the human into the monster. It makes it spookier, and there’s more you can connect with it. So, we were trying to find that combination of monster-human. The things were really vicious and very formidable. As humans, we would have very little chance of surviving an assault from these things. But they are not impenetrable. They have weaknesses. 

We had lots of various designs for the Breakers. As you said, there are so many creatures in movies, horror films, and Marvel films. We pull ideas from other movies, but we tried to make it feel a little fresh. And, also, not wanting to see them. It was the usual thing of not wanting to overplay them in the movie. It’s the Jaws thing. The less you see of the shark, the better. We tailored the coverage so they are always in the periphery. You kinda see them, but you don’t fully see them. That was the idea.

And the hybrids are a combination of human DNA and Breaker DNA. They were really that and trying to find what would happen if these things merged. What would they become? That’s how that monster evolved. That was the fun thing about this movie. I hadn’t really done creature design so much. It was cool and fun to do. 

There’s a Medieval, Arthurian vibe in different parts. Why did you go in that direction, leaning into the swordplay as opposed to just relying on guns?

The movie is a movie about storytelling and the power of storytelling, and how it can give oppressed people or humans hope and faith that we can survive the challenges ahead. It opens with dad telling his daughter a story about how the world got to be and how it’s always breaking. Here we are and, now, we have to fight back.

Kodiak is sort of mythological. He’s sort of a King Arthur type-character. He’s a Paul Bunyan character, who is this mythological character that they look up to and idolize. Is he real? Is he mythological? It’s not really clear, like a lot of myths. Even King Arthur, they are not even sure if he’s a real person or a myth. The idea is to play into the parable nature of the story and to also separate it a little bit from other post-apocalyptic movies that are set in the future, where everything is modern technology and have these laser beams. We wanted it to feel like a throwback. 

Technology is not available to them, so they had to go back to the old ways in order to combat these old-fashioned monsters. I felt that combination was unique and fresh. They have guns, and they have some stuff, but they are also going back to the old ways. In my mind, it made the whole story feel more mythological or less real, and more story. Something you would tell your kids at night. It wasn’t in the script, all that stuff. We added that. 

Part of the excitement of these movies involves the worldbuilding. How much thought have you given to sequels or prequels, and where you would like to go if given the opportunity?

It could easily tee up to a sequel. It sort of hangs on a cliffhanger. Would that be something fun to do? Sure, it would be great. But I think the movie can equally stand alone. I don’t often like the sequel/prequel thing. It feels a little too opportunistic. It’s always driven by the success of the original film. I like the idea of letting the audience imagine what happened. It’s rare that the sequel is better than the original. But, yeah, we gave it a little thought. At the end of the day, we just wanted to make a good film. 

Worldbreaker is in cinemas now. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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