The Creator

In director Gareth Edwards’ The Creator, former special-forces operative Joshua Taylor is assigned to locate an incredibly advanced weapon only to discover that that mysterious weapon is a 6-year-old girl named Alphie.

Wētā Workshop designed and manufactured the lead character specialty costumes, military costumes and specialty props and weapons for this action film set in a future world where artificial intelligence and humanity are at war.

Military factions

Specialty costumes, props and weapons

We approached the design and manufacture of military factions for The Creator knowing the film’s crew needed to be light on their feet, leading to a modular design philosophy where nearly everything was multipurpose. The result was specially crafted pieces that could be mixed and matched to create a series of specialty costumes. This approach also aligned with Gareth's overarching vision for the film — to construct a richly rendered sci-fi world, intelligently designed for reusability in various configurations.

Under costume designer and Wētā Workshop art director Jeremy Hanna, our design studio established a uniform system that could be shared across the six different military groups, each distinguished by distinct colour schemes. Practically, this was achieved through paint and graphics, allowing for various configurations of costume prop tech to be integrated into the base vests, creating distinct silhouettes for each group. This modular approach was complemented by a range of helmet and backpack designs. 

A large array of weapons was required for the various military factions, and careful consideration was used when developing the look of the guns. Gareth wanted to push the guns as far from conventional firearms as possible while still allowing the audience to recognise them as guns. To begin with, no idea was too outlandish! Our design team explored different options by moving handles, magazines and barrels in a variety of strange and unique configurations, resulting in some interesting silhouettes.

Ben Fairless, Project Supervisor for Props and Weapons, led our manufacturing crew to employ multiple aging techniques and add in battle damage. This included little nicks and cuts as well as a layer of grime and dirt caked into everything. This helps the props feel as if they exist in the world and ties all the props and costumes in together. 

Ben and the team also crafted head and shoulder pieces for background actors, illustrating the heavy integration of technology in this world. Gareth's vision always prioritised, making the most of natural environments and real people during location shoots throughout Asia. However, it was impractical to create costumes for every background character in every scene. 

To address this challenge, we designed and manufactured background and military elements as a kit of parts that could be handed out to distant or midground crowds and integrated into their contemporary clothing. These sci-fi costume pieces, such as head, neck and chest elements, played a pivotal role in signalling to the audience that this world exists in a time far removed from the present day.

Joshua  

Specialty costumes, props and weapons, and prosthetic arm

Our teams undertook the task of designing and manufacturing several of protagonist Joshua’s costumes, including the NOMAD spacesuit imagined by Wētā Workshop designers Thomas Oates and Tahiwi Trenor-Hunt. This retro-inflected design, which feels beyond our time, is worn by actor John David Washington in the third act

For Joshua and other characters, we also designed and made the Biohazard suits. These suits feature in two separate scenes of the film, so our crew developed a suit that could be easily adapted for reuse. In keeping with the modular approach, this design incorporated elements from the spacesuit and military attire.

The brief for Joshua's combat outfit was to make him look capable in a military setting, but as a correspondent, it made sense for him to be less fully equipped than the soldiers around him. His combat look integrated the same design language as the military factions. Jake Evill, Project Supervisor for Costume, led our team of creative artisans to bring these costumes to life.

Alphie 

Specialty costume 

The character of Alphie was played by 9-year-old Madeleine Yuna Voyles. Making costumes for children can be challenging due to their growth during the pre-production stage. As we couldn’t have fittings with Madeleine, Wētā Workshop costume supervisor Tree Harris collaborated with the overseas team to receive periodic measurements. This allowed our crew to calculate her costume size accurately for the shoot. 

Alphie’s costume — envisioned by Wētā Workshop designers Adam Middleton and Tahiwi Trenor-Hunt — took inspiration from martial arts uniforms and flight suits, incorporating a tech-integrated feel. It was crafted from linens, combined with screen printing, spandex and tech components embedded into the costume. Detailed, weighted piping was stitched into the layered fabrics to simulate wiring running through her clothing.

Maya 

Specialty costume 

Actor Gemma Chan portrays Maya Fey, the wife of Joshua. As an engineer, her costume consisted of multiple layers that could be worn in different combinations depending on the scene’s requirements. The team enjoyed working with shapes and textures, ensuring each layer had unique elements that complemented one another when layered.

Additionally, a series of skin-tight suits for Maya replicas were designed to emulate a factory-sealed product, wrapped in protective plastic. For Maya’s hero version, the Wētā Workshop costume department created the costume using hand-dyed spandex, custom screen printing and piping details with tech components.

Medical equipment and assorted gadgets 

Specialty props including medical headgear, a tracking device, EMPs, radios and night-vision goggles 

Working closely with Gareth and production designer James Clyne, we designed and manufactured a combination of bespoke props. These included one-of-a-kind items like medical headgear and a NOMAD explosive, as well as a series of props using real-world items as a base and augmenting them. 

We combed the internet for weird and intriguing tools, hardware and tech that we could purchase off the shelf, strip of any recognisable elements, and customise to perfectly fit the film’s aesthetic.