Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s AI studio, Primordial Soup, unveiled an animated AI short-form series about the American Revolution titled On This Day 1776 on January 29. As soon as the trailer and the first two episodes dropped on YouTube, viewers expressed disappointment over the filmmaker’s use of AI for storytelling.
Darren Aronofsky’s AI series disappoints
The project marks a collaboration between Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind. The series tells short narrative stories about the Revolutionary War using generative AI tools. According to the announcement, the aim of the project is to “reframe the Revolution not as a foregone conclusion but as a fragile experiment shaped by those who fought for it.”
Viewers took to social media to share their disapproval. One post read, “This is actually the most evil thing I’ve ever seen.” Another Another comment said, “No one should support this. Not only because it’s AI, but because it looks horrible.” One disappointed viewer wrote, “This is embarrassing,” while another commented, “Yuck. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood went full AI for a film. Bit disappointed it’s Darren, though.”
Reacting to the first episode, another user wrote, “This looks absolutely atrocious. Even the first few seconds look more like AI slop than I expected — and it only gets worse. Absolutely appalling. I’m not watching anymore. Downvoted, and hopefully you won’t try this nonsense again.”
Each episode of the short-form series will focus on a different key moment from that pivotal year. The fact-based narratives will rely on SAG-AFTRA voice actors and AI-generated visuals, with each episode releasing on the 250th anniversary of the event it depicts on Time’s YouTube channel.
About Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an acclaimed American filmmaker who made his debut with Pi (1998) and went on to direct critically lauded films such as Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan and Mother!. His work often explores themes of obsession, identity, addiction and the human psyche, pushing emotional and narrative boundaries.
For the psychological horror film Black Swan (2010), Aronofsky received Best Director nominations at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards and Golden Globe Awards. His most recent film, Caught Stealing (2025), is a black comedy crime thriller starring Austin Butler as a former star baseball player-turned-bartender who unwittingly becomes entangled in New York City’s criminal underworld while pet-sitting for his neighbor. The film received positive reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office.
