‘Overlord’: How J.J. Abrams Helped Craft 2018’s Most Messed Up Blockbuster

Chris Tilly
Movies Horror
Movies Horror Sci-Fi

With JJ Abrams producing forthcoming sci-fi horror Overlord through his company Bad Robot, we’ve been finding out exactly how he influenced the making of the year’s most messed-up blockbuster. A film that pits American WWII soldiers against malevolent Nazi monsters. And features lashings of hardcore gore and violence.

FANDOM sat down with director Julius Avery and stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell and Pilou Asbæk at Fantastic Fest to find out how Abrams got involved, the results of which can be viewed above, or read further down this page via a few edited highlights…

The Influence of JJ Abrams

Jovan Adepo (Boyce): He’s so intimidating. He’s not trying to be intimidating but you know who he is. He came on set and just kind of looks around and makes notes. But as far as the actors go, he didn’t say much, until the end. And when he did speak he was just the kindest man, who put us all at ease.

Pilou Asbæk (Wafner): He’s the producer of the film, but he’s also a colleague. So he’s also an artistic collaboration partner. So you can bounce ideas.

Wyatt Russell (Ford): JJ came probably for three or four days out of the whole thing to be on set, a lot of his stuff was probably done before and after the filming. But what was cool about it was someone like JJ, who is the god of the genre universe and of film, let Julius do what he wanted to do, and execute Julius’s vision. So it was pretty awesome to have JJ’s vote of confidence like that.

Julius Avery (Overlord director): I like what he stands for. He’s all about seeing how far you can test things. And with Bad Robot you can always expect the unexpected. He loves to subvert the genre tropes. And he likes to experiment, but with big movies. Big popcorn adventure movies. And he loves to see how far you can go down the rabbit hole…

Overlord hits screens worldwide next week, while you can view more interviews with the cast below.

Chris Tilly
Freelance writer. At this point my life is a combination of 1980s horror movies, Crystal Palace football matches, and episodes of I'm Alan Partridge. The first series. When he was in the travel tavern. Not the one after.