Ross Emery previously collaborated with Scott on “Alien” and “Gladiator,” making him familiar with the director’s approach to creating worlds unlike our own. Riddlescott’s vision for “Raised by the Wolves” was to put the androids in the driver’s seat as they battle the threat of a religious extremist group called the Mithraic, a hidden threat to the planet. Emery explained in an interview with ibc.org that Scott wants to create a “future world where technology is unknown to humans” for viewers of the show, which takes place in the near future – sometime in the 22nd century.
Elaborating on this, Emery Scott urges props, wardrobe and production designers to remember the unique world of the show, because everything that graces the screen must be supported by a compelling backstory. This means reworking any technology that “seems familiar to the world” and using “artificial light sources … and organic plasmas” to make the light on Kepler-22b as natural as possible.
As the androids on Kepler-22b are in survival mode and focused on repopulating the planet, their daily routines must look as organic as possible, combined with a limited “show-don’t-tell” aspect. Technology during a global dystopian war. Even the name of the desert planet, Kepler-22b, is based on the real-life planet of the same name, believed by NASA to be “in the most habitable zone” for human existence (so far). This commitment to grounded realism and world-building, among other qualities, helped “Raised by Wolves” emerge as a compelling entry in the sci-fi genre.
