Five years after filming War of the Worlds, the pandemic era reboot has finally seen the light of day
Ice Cube, who plays government computer analyst Will Radford in the Rich Lee-helmed screenlife flick, recently recalled how he shot his scenes while social-distancing and why it “took a minute” for the movie to get a release.
“This is a movie I did in 2020 during the pandemic, five years ago,” he said on Kai Cenat’s livestream. “We shot it in 15 days, and it was during the pandemic. So, the director wasn’t in there, none of the actors was in there. This was the only way we could really shoot the movie. It’s pandemic time.”
The Grammy winner added, “That’s why it’s only the computer screen. But really, if shit went down, everybody would only have their screen to look at.”
Following the War of the Worlds‘ July 30 premiere on Prime Video, Ice Cube also explained why the release took so long, taking into account other unconventional footage used in the making of the film.
Ice Cube in ‘War of the Worlds’ (2025) (Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“Well, it was a Universal movie, and they sold it to Amazon Prime. And it took a minute to finish the movie because of how it’s shot,” he said. “All the footage is from real surveillance cameras all around the world. So they had to build all that shit.”
Ice Cube stars in the thriller alongside Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Iman Benson, Henry Hunter Hall and more.
Written by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, War of the Worlds is the latest adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1898 alien invasion novel, which has seen numerous adaptations since Orson Welles’ 1938 radio drama. While this latest, screen-based reboot is a thoughtful era-appropriate update on the material, it currently holds a 4% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
