Published Jan 29, 2026, 3:50 PM EST
Alejandro Josan is a contributor on Screen Rant. He has years of experience writing about video games and entertainment, and he recently found his niche and passion in true crime and crime news reporting.
Darren Aronofsky, the name behind Black Swan and The Whale, has dipped his toes into "sloppy" territory with his recently formed AI studio.
A trailer and two episodes from On This Day... 1776, an AI-generated non-fiction web series that recreates historical moments from 1776, are out, and the internet has very strong opinions about it.
Aronofsky's Primordial Soup and TIME Studios teamed up to deliver the historical series and have released its trailer, along with its first two episodes, "January 1: The Flag" and "January 10: Common Sense." According to TIME, more episodes will be released throughout 2026, timed to the 250th anniversary of each historical event depicted.
Check out this trailer below:
TIME details that artists "animated" the series by using a "variety of generative AI tools," including Google DeepMind, with a post-production team being in charge of editing, mixing, and color grading. The characters are voiced by SAG actors, and the series features an original score by Jordan Dykstra.
TIME Studios president Ben Bitonti called the series "ambitious [...] historically grounded storytelling," and an example of the studio's evolution:
This project is a glimpse at what thoughtful, creative, artist-led use of AI can look like—not replacing craft, but expanding what’s possible and allowing storytellers to go places they simply couldn’t before.
The 43-second-long official trailer for On This Day... 1776, garnering thousands of views hours after its release, has the uncanny valley feel that characterizes other AI-generated content, such as the McDonald's Christmas ad. With unnatural camera moves, exaggerated close-ups, battlefields filled with copy-pasted soldiers, and many plastic-like faces, the trailer has drawn significant backlash.
Beyond The Trailer creator and host Grace Randolph calls Aronofsky's AI series "ironic" and the director a "Benedict Arnold" in the entertainment world:
YouTuber Benji Naesen, outraged by Aronofsky's use of AI, states that he would prefer to watch the first six hours of Milan-Sanremo, the longest one-day road cycling race in Europe:
Many others slammed Aronofsky and Primordial Soup, lamenting his transition from celebrated director to AI-content enthusiast, the post seen below being one example:
On This Day... 1776 can be watched on TIME's YouTube Channel.
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