How “Companion” was almost an entirely different movie: 'What if the robot was the most human character?'

Companion is a true test of empathy — but not in the way you might expect.

It's not a spoiler to say the smart romantic thriller starring Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher as a young couple on a remote getaway with friends takes a lot of sharp left turns because some of the film's many twists were already revealed in a trailer: Josh's (Quaid) devoted girlfriend Iris (Thatcher) is actually his programmed robot companion. And during their romantic weekend away, something goes wrong, and things turn bloody fast. What seems to be a drama about the dangers of artificial intelligence quickly becomes a clever commentary on toxic masculinity, self-empowerment, and, surprisingly, love. That's because the main character is the robot herself and not her human owner.

But writer-director Drew Hancock first thought of the movie with a very different story that changes everything about who you root for and empathize with as the violent action unfolds. "Companion just kind of popped in my head one day, and I couldn't stop thinking about it," the filmmaker tells Entertainment Weekly. "Originally, the very first incarnation of the idea, and I don't know if I ever shared this with Sophie, but Iris was the villain. They go to this cabin in the middle of the woods, and then you find out one of them is a robot who goes haywire and starts killing Josh's friends."

Related: Jack Quaid faces off against robot girlfriend gone haywire in twisty Companion trailer (exclusive)

But as Hancock continued to develop the story, he was surprised to find himself relating more to Iris, who faces the sometimes-awkward social situation of meeting Josh's best friends (played by Lukas Gage, Harvey Guillén, and Rupert Friend) and ex-girlfriend (played by Megan Suri) for the first time during the trip. "I started thinking about Iris being alienated in that sense that you're meeting a partner's family and friends and how alienating that feels," he explains. "Then I realized, 'This would be interesting to tell the story from the point of view of the robot. What if the robot was the most human character in the story?' That's when I fell in love with the idea... It's not A.I. gone wrong, it's A.I. gone right."

There was one concern about this storytelling approach, however. "We had a test group watch it, and there was one woman who, she didn't dislike it, but she was like, 'I just couldn't get into it because I couldn't relate to Iris because she's a robot,'" Hancock says. "And that is a totally valid way of watching the movie. Maybe she didn't totally connect with Iris, but you could tell she liked talking about the movie, and it's really fun to see the debates about the moral gray areas. At the end of the day, I would hope you wouldn't relate to Josh per se, but understand a little bit about the frustrations that he's dealing with."

Related: Companion review: Jack Quaid leads a deliciously smart comedic thriller

That shift in perspective from Josh to Iris immediately hooked Quaid when he first read the script, which he calls his "favorite thing" that he's ever done. "I love that the character with the most humanity is the robot in this story," The Boys actor tells EW. "A lesser movie would've probably made my character the protagonist and Iris the antagonist who's going crazy, and Josh has to save the day. But I love how this movie is the slightly more realistic version where Josh is very selfish and is doing this all for incredibly selfish reasons."

Thatcher (Heretic, Yellowjackets) also fell in love with Hancock's wildly inventive script, but she had a very different experience once she learned she landed the role of Iris. "I remember being scared and thinking that I couldn't pull it off," she tells EW. "The script's amazing, but I was scared by it in the way that there's so many technicalities that I thought I couldn't pull off, but I had enough time to prepare that it just felt right. I was over the moon and terrified."

Companion hits theaters on Jan. 31.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly