The Creator Director Gareth Edwards explains why he loves Sci-Fi so much, as well as the importance of including emotion in a story like this.
The Creator is a massive, Science Fiction, epic. Gareth Edwards, who co-wrote and directs the film, has a love for Sci-Fi that very clearly inspires all of his work. During the global press conference in support of the film, Gareth explains where this love came from, as well as the importance of including emotion in a story like this.
Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The Creator would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.
Edwards says that growing up with Star Wars, he was promised this amazing world with spaceships and robots, but then eventually he realizes that it’s not true and not going to happen. “So the second-best thing is, I’ll become a liar, like George Lucas, and I’ll create these stories for kids to grow up with.”
The other main reason he loves Science Fiction so much is because his favorite TV show growing up was The Twilight Zone. “The Rod Serling in black and white TV show.”
He continues, “What’s so good about those stories is they change one aspect of real life. Like, basically, you can live your whole life and have certain set beliefs. They never really get challenged because nothing really happens out of the ordinary. And so, you think everything you believe about the world is correct.”
Gareth Edwards explains that then they change some aspect of the world to be an extreme. Simply flipping one element on its head, whatever it may be, causes you to suddenly realize a lot of the things you thought were true start to not work and are wrong.
“It makes you question what your beliefs are. And I think that’s the best kind of science fiction.” In The Creator, they use A.I. as a metaphor for people who are different to yourself. Gareth discusses how that is how it started at least, but now, with the way A.I. has evolved over the last year or so, the story is becoming a little bit of a reality. And that is very surreal.
In The Creator, the emotion and heart of the story is tied to Joshua (John David Washington) and Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Their relationship delivers a lot of the moments that will tug at your heartstrings.
Gareth Edwards explains why this is so important to include in a story like this. “I think essentially, the film that probably had one of the biggest impacts on me as a kid was Steven Spielberg’s E.T. And as a kid, I went in, all I was interested in is I wanted to see an alien, and a spaceship, and BMX’es. Then I got absolutely moved to tears on this emotional journey with the two of them.”
Gareth goes on to say that the goal of every movie, that you never say out loud, is to move people to tears. You never say it out loud because you set yourself up for failure, but if you don’t make some people well up, or cry, then you’re not really abusing the power of cinema. “It’s always the secret goal when you write a film, is to do something that affects people emotionally. But yeah, I mean, it’s up for other people to say if you are successful or not, I guess.”
Check out this incredibly stunning Science Fiction world for yourself when The Creator hits theaters on September 29th.
NEXT: The Creator Director Gareth Edwards Reveals Inspirations
About The Creator
As a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence rages on, ex-special forces agent Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI. The Creator has developed a mysterious weapon that has the power to end the war and all of mankind.
As Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy-occupied territory, they soon discover the world-ending weapon is actually an AI in the form of a young child.
