Who wants some feelings to go with your epic sci-fi action thriller? The latest trailer for The Creator, the upcoming film by Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, suggests the movie will be chock full of emotions and, dare I say it, a compelling, cohesive story.
As the trailer tees up, John David Washington’s character, Joshua, thinks he’s not a good person. He is a person, however, who wants to find his missing wife. And he’s also someone who appears hellbent on protecting an AI child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles). The clip also gives us some new footage, particularly of how humans—specifically the U.S. Army—are determined to kill said AI child because they have the power to end the war between humans and AI… and also potentially destroy all of humankind (at least from most humans’ point of view).
“Here we have a protagonist who goes on this journey through this futuristic war zone and starts to question what he thought was true,” Edwards said in a statement about the film. “As a society, we’re going on that journey now, whether we like it or not, about AI. Is it real? Is it really a person that we’re talking to? While the film raises a lot of questions about technology and AI, at its core, The Creator is also a fairy tale. A reluctant father figure must help a child through the metaphorical woods to find his wife. What he wants is love from his wife. But what he really needs is to love this child.”
The story comes to us from Edwards and was written by Edwards and Chris Weitz. Edwards also said in the statement that his worldbuilding inspirations for the film were Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, which tracks based on what we’ve been shown so far. He also cited Baraka, Blade Runner, and Akira as inspirations.
In addition to Washington and Voyles, The Creator stars Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Janney. It premieres in theaters on September 29, 2023.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.
