Why YOUNG WASHINGTON Director Had to Tell America’s Founder’s Story

Published: June 17, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

YOUNG WASHINGTON director and writer Jon Erwin sat down with Movieguide® to share why he fell in love with George Washington’s life story.

“I just was awestruck by the American Revolution and the American story and by Washington himself and by the question, where did this mythic character come from? Where was he forged?” he told Movieguide® this week.

He found that Washington was made out of hardships, failure, adventure, faith and frontier.

“Everyone knew the name; not many people knew that story,” Erwin explained. “And so — yeah…I wanted to write some sort of a love letter to America for the 250th anniversary, and that’s what this movie became, and I’m very grateful that it’s coming out on our anniversary.”

Washington’s mother had a great influence in who he became.

“It was a very interesting relationship with his mother…And the idea of if this is what you feel is your destiny and God’s telling you to do, then do it with everything that you have, was one of the great messages of the movie,” Erwin explained.

Washington’s spirituality grew as he did, and the Revolutionary War was one of his most profound moments where he experienced God’s hand.

“I found it interesting that you can’t understand Washington or really the Revolution or the nation itself without this idea of the divine hand, is what he called it,” Erwin explained. “And that the first major event in his life where he recognized that there was a hand of providence, something guiding him, was this moment depicted in the film where he was later told he was being shot directly at, and it’s like they could not hit him.”

His first inaugural address alludes to that.

He says, “‘I can’t explain my life or the country or the Revolution without giving credit where credit is due, that there’s a divine hand to the story.’ That was the spiritual chapter of his life that we’re telling, and I think that spirituality deepened as his life went on, and maybe we’ll get to tell that story as well,” Erwin said.

The movie stars Mary-Louise Parker, Andy Serkis, Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammer, Joel Smallbone and William Franklyn Miller, per IMDB.

The logline reads, “Before he led a nation, George Washington was a young soldier thrown into a global conflict. With alliances crumbling and war closing in, he must choose who to trust and confront the leader he’s becoming.”

Erwin shared in a statement, “With YOUNG WASHINGTON, I am honored to be able to show a modern audience what it felt like to be George Washington during such an early and pivotal time in his life: his ambition, his heartbreak, his failures and the events that drove him to become the revered figure we all know.”

The movie comes out in theaters on July 3.

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