After stewarding three blockbusters, the British film-maker was ready for a break. Instead, he found himself at the helm of one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises at its most critical juncture
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ike an ancient warhorse hearing the bugle for one last time, readers of a certain age will be snorting and whinnying at the words “Gareth” and “Edwards”. They are irresistible madeleines for the legends of Welsh rugby: unfeasible 70s sideburns, neck-high tackles and JPR Williams on the overlap.
These days, though, things are different: Gareth Edwards is also the name of the unassuming fortysomething film director sitting in front of me who has quietly acquired a reputation as one of Britain’s most accomplished franchise movie-makers. “I’ve had it my whole life, to be honest,” he says. “My dad was a massive rugby fan. My comedy goal is that the Gareth Edwards does something and everybody goes: ‘Oh, the film‑maker?’ That would be it. I could die happy after that.”
While there is no immediate prospect of this Gareth Edwards finishing off an eight-man move and going over in the corner – any more than there is of Willie John MacBride taking on the next Iron Man movie – you sense that the tide may eventually turn in the younger man’s favour. With a Star Wars and a Godzilla movie under his belt, not to mention the Christopher-Nolan-esque sci-fi parable The Creator, Edwards is now perched atop the new Jurassic World movie – the seventh in the series, if you count the three Jurassic Park films – which is slightly ominously subtitled Rebirth.
