The latest sci-fi epic, Raised by Wolves, premiered on HBO Max last week and tells the story of two androids tasked with raising human children after the destruction of Earth. Acclaimed Executive Producer Ridley Scott directed the first two episodes, but the brains behind the operation is showrunner Aaron Guzikowski.

Guzikowski sat down with Screen Rant to discuss the inspiration behind the series, as well as collaboration process required to bring the complicated idea to life.

This is usually something you would see in cinemas across the land, because it's so epic. But here we are at HBO Max. Where did the idea for Raised by Wolves come from? 

Aaron Guzikowski: I think it probably came from my experience as a parent. I have three young sons, and [I'm] thinking about raising them in this world where technology just keeps encroaching on us; the distance between humans and the technology we create is becoming smaller and smaller. And just thinking about, in terms of the future, if we were ever able to restart our civilization and we knew everything that happened on Earth - what would we decide to take with us and what would we try and leave behind? Is that even something we can control, or are we like androids, in the sense that we have these genetic programs and we're just stuck in these cycles. It was kind of the combination of those two things.

Can you talk to me about the collaboration process with Ridley Scott? Because he's no stranger to science fiction, with the Alien films, but this is a lot different than that.

Aaron Guzikowski: When we started out, I brought the script into his production company, and they were going to produce it. But then eventually he read it and decided he wanted to direct, which was incredible news to hear. From then on, it's just really been an incredible collaboration. I think he's been so generous, in terms of his experience. He's put so much time and energy into this show, beyond the directing of the first two episodes. He worked on the post-production process for the rest of this series and the color grading and all of this fine-tuning stuff.

It's so inspiring to be around him and to get to work with him, obviously. And he is just a big proponent of going by instinct and trying to break barriers and come up with new stuff. Because he helped design a lot of what we've come to know as the science fiction look for a lot of this stuff, so how to kind of push out beyond that - who better to do that than him?

Mother with her arms outstretched in Raised By Wolves

There's something that I noticed in some of the costume design for the Mithraic. It feels very much like the Crusades and Templar Knights. Can you talk to me about why that seems like such an influence for some of those characters?

Aaron Guzikowski: Yes. I think part of it is that the beginnings of this world, in many ways, are mirroring the beginnings of Earth. And even though they are coming with all this technology, when they arrive there, they don't have much left. They're having to rely on pretty primitive means for survival.

But going along with that, as the earth was ended by this massive religious war that was started by the Mithraic religion - which is a real religion that predates Christianity. The idea's that it came back into the fore and begin the end times, more or less. I think I've lost track of the answer there, but it's somewhere in there.

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