The Creator: How Gareth Edwards Brought AI to Life (Exclusive)

The Creator is now playing in theaters, and it marks the latest film helmed by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director, Gareth Edwards. The new sci-fi film stars John David Washington as Joshua, a man who is living amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. When Joshua is tasked with finding a powerful weapon that ends up being an AI child named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), he must decide where his allegiances lie. During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Edwards talked about bringing AI to life on the big screen.

“I think the thing we did, that probably other films at this level probably would’ve been told off if they had tried to do the same, was that we didn’t have tracking markers on everybody,” Edwards explained when asked if he had to use or develop new technology to create the AI characters. “So, we had real people play all the different roles. So anyone who’s an AI in the movie pretty much is a … There’s an actor doing it, for real. And I didn’t want dots and markers on everyone, because there was a scenario where we decide, ‘You know what? These police, maybe they shouldn’t be AI. Maybe they should just be humans.’ Because we didn’t know how much money we would have to do all the VFX at the end, and so we didn’t want to get locked into anything.”

Edwards continued, “So, everybody who was in the movie didn’t know if they would end up as a robot or not. They just had to play it very realistically, like a real human. So, I think that adds to the realism. When you do finally make that person into a robot, it seems very natural. Because they’re really there, really running through the cornfield or whatever it was. That’s one of my favorite things about the film, is that it’s that science fiction, but very grounded.”

What Is The Creator About?

In addition to Washington and Voyles, The Creator stars Gemma Chan (Eternals), Ken Watanabe (Inception), Sturgill Simpson (Dog), and Academy Award winner Allison Janney (I, Tonya). The film’s screenplay is by Edwards and Chris Weitz, from a story by Edwards. Edwards is producing alongside Kiri Hart, Jim Spencer, p.g.a., and Arnon Milchan. The executive producers are Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Natalie Lehmann, Nick Meyer, and Zev Foreman.

In the film, Washington’s Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child.  

“The Creator has a double meaning because on one side it means the person who is building A.I.,” Edwards shared with ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con. “In the eyes of the West in our movie, [A.I.] is public enemy number one … It’s like Osama bin Laden, ‘We want them dead. They’re doing this terrible thing.’ On the other side of the fence, from the A.I.’s point of view and the people who live in Asia, the Creator is like God, is creating all these beautiful people. And so, it has this double meaning.”

The Creator is now playing in theaters.