“There were two main things: I wanted to expand the role of Nile, give her more agency in the plot, create more backstory, give her a full arc in terms of her family and what she was giving up. The other was I wanted to bring the reality of killing into this piece. It’s something I felt we hadn’t seen that often in this genre. In doing my research to direct this, I read this great book called On Killing , which is considered the definitive book for soldiers, and what it talks about is that the act of taking a life is as damaging to your psyche as your fear of losing your life on the battlefield. That was fascinating to me, it really felt true for both Andy and Nile. Andy is a woman who is compelled to have to kill, she doesn’t know why yet, but it is there because of their credo: Take a life to save many. But what is that toll? What would that take to kill over and over again for 6,000 years, even though you know it’s for a greater good? I wanted to make sure it doesn’t feel easy to take a life. It’s not a funny quip at the end of blasting somebody.”