Ice Cube says he shot Amazon's infamous War of the Worlds movie completely alone during the pandemic: "the director wasn’t in there, none of the actors was in there"

It's starting to make sense why Amazon's War of the Worlds movie flopped so hard, as star Ice Cube says he shot his scenes completely alone without a director due to the pandemic.

“This is a movie I did in 2020 during the pandemic, five years ago,” said Ice Cube to influencer 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.”

Amazon's take on War of the Worlds follows Ice Cube as a Homeland Security officer who has the ability to monitor everyone on Earth. However, one day at work, he sees that large machines have landed on Earth, attacking everyone and everything in sight. From the comfort of his office, he attempts to shut down the alien machines and save the planet.

The movie is based on H.G. Wells’ 1898 sci-fi novel of the same name, but strays from its source material, choosing to tell the tale from computer screens only, using the webcam function to connect actors. However, Ice Cube says that this was because the film was shot during COVID-19, and actors had to abide by social distancing rules. “That’s why it’s only the computer screen," explained the star. "But really, if shit went down, everybody would only have their screen to look at.”

However, despite taking five years to complete, the movie did not go over well with critics and audiences, earning it a measly 4% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 1.5 rating on Amazon Prime Video. What the movie did succeed in was taking over the internet, as film buffs quickly found the unlikely adaptation extremely meme-worthy.

Amazon's War of the Worlds is written by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman. Alongside Ice Cube, the film also stars Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Iman Benson, Henry Hunter Hall, and more.

War of the Worlds is available to watch on Prime Video now. For more on what to watch, get up to speed with the best upcoming movies still to come this year with our guide to 2025's biggest movie release dates.