Storyboards for Steven Spielberg’s postponed Robopocalypse show what could have been

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

ROBOPOCALYPSE had everything going for it: Steven Spielberg directing, Drew Goddard scripting, and a cast that featured Chris Hemsworth, Anne Hathaway, and Ben Whishaw. Combined, Spielberg’s return to sci-fi action seemed like a no-brainer. But, then came the news that the film was postponed so that a more personal/lower budget perspective could be found. A new script was being developed and the cast was sent on their way. Oh, what could have been.

Now, some storyboards from ROBOPOCALYPSE have found their way online from artist Michael Anthony Jackson. The scene in question features the menacing mechwolves as they go on the attack. The images, even just in pencil, look like they would have made for an epic film if Spielberg had brought them to life. With the director claiming a smaller-scale take is being explored, who knows if we will ever see this scene brought to life.

In the near future, an increasingly robot-reliant society faces extinction after a computer scientist accidentally unleashes a sentient artificial intelligence named Archos. After failed attempts at making a non-homocidal artificial intelligence, the safeguards in a computer science lab are compromised. Archos, a supremely intelligent AI, becomes self-aware and immediately starts planning the decimation of human civilization in an attempt to preserve Earth’s biodiversity. After infecting all penetrable networked electronic devices (cars, airplanes, elevators, robots, etc.) with a “precursor virus”, Archos begins planning a systematic attack on the human race.

While it is highly unlikely that Spielberg will be able to reassemble the same cast with Chris Hemsworth getting ready for THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and Anne Hathaway still at work on INTERSTELLAR, it could happen. Steven Spielberg has yet to name his next film and has dropped out of both AMERICAN SNIPER and ROBOPOCALYPSE.