Darren Aronofsky Faces Backlash Over AI-Generated YouTube History Series
Let’s be honest. Most of us have wildly inconsistent standards when it comes to AI video. We’ll scroll for ten minutes watching algorithm-fueled nonsense on social media without blinking, but the second artificial intelligence wanders into something that looks like prestige storytelling, people lose their minds.
Cute AI animals saving each other get a free pass. A brand or filmmaker using the same tech in a serious context? Suddenly that feels unacceptable.
That contradiction blew up in a big way last week when Darren Aronofsky found himself at the center of an online dogpile thanks to a new YouTube project tied to his AI-focused studio Primordial Soup. Partnering with Time, the studio launched On This Day… 1776, a short-form historical series that uses Google DeepMind models to recreate moments from the American Revolutionary War.
The concept sounds respectable enough. The first two episodes clock in at under five minutes and focus on the raising of the Grand Union Flag on Prospect Hill and what the series cheekily calls America’s first meme, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense pamphlet arguing for independence from Great Britain.
The tech does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the production went out of its way to stress the human element. The show is “animated by artists” and voiced by SAG actors, with Below writer Lucas Sussman heading up the writers’ room. Aronofsky is listed as executive producer, though how hands-on he actually was remains unclear.
None of that stopped the backlash.
Because Aronofsky’s name is attached, On This Day… 1776 isn’t being judged like disposable timeline filler. It’s being treated as a professional storytelling effort, and viewers have been ruthless.
YouTube comments quickly filled with frame-by-frame callouts: a character sporting too many teeth, snow falling upward, flames flickering outside a lantern, and the word “AMEREED” stamped on Paine’s pamphlet instead of “America.”
“This is embarrassing for everybody involved,” one commenter wrote, summing up the general mood with surprising restraint. The trailer alone racked up roughly 18,000 dislikes compared to just 767 likes. That means 96 percent of viewers who bothered to rate it gave it a thumbs down.
It’s not a massive sample size, but paired with the tone of the comments and broader criticism, it lands with some weight. Culture writer Stuart Heritage even labeled the series a “horror” in The Guardian.
What really fuels the reaction isn’t just the tech hiccups. It’s the feeling of personal disappointment aimed squarely at Aronofsky. People aren’t just annoyed. They feel let down.
Scroll through YouTube or, probably more painfully, X and the sentiment is clear. How could the filmmaker behind Black Swan and The Whale get mixed up in something that looks like AI slop?
Aronofsky hasn’t addressed the controversy publicly. Still, his past comments offer some insight into how he might see all this. Primordial Soup was founded on the motto “make soup, not slop,” a line that keeps popping up whenever the studio is discussed.
In a Dazed interview last year, Aronofsky admitted that while he feels “grief” about how AI is disrupting filmmaking, that feeling is outweighed by curiosity and a desire to experiment.
There’s a real argument to be made for that mindset. AI tools are already reshaping how movies and TV shows are developed. Depending on how things shake out, Aronofsky could one day be remembered as someone who pushed into uncomfortable territory early rather than someone who sold out.
Generative video advocate Nick St. Pierre praised On This Day… as a “truly insane” example, meant as a compliment, of what can happen when artists and AI work together.
Still, the response suggests the timing is off. Viewers don’t seem ready to watch a revered storyteller embrace artificial intelligence this openly. It gives people the ick in a way that doesn’t apply to creators who came up inside this tech.
The Dor Brothers, who have been spotlighted in Rendering before, don’t carry decades of emotional investment from audiences. When they dropped a trailer this week for Rorschach Killer, a film concept backed by unnamed investors, the reaction flipped completely. Within 24 hours, 99% of viewers who rated the video hit the like button.
That contrast says a lot.
Aronofsky built his reputation telling intensely human stories, which makes it jarring to see his company use text-prompted characters to recreate foundational moments in American history.
He’s even acknowledged himself that AI isn’t ready for “full primetime” feature filmmaking. This YouTube series is clearly about probing that boundary, poking at what works and what doesn’t.
Right now, though, the verdict from the internet feels pretty clear. Auteur-driven AI storytelling might be inevitable, but for now, the world just isn’t ready for it.
Via: Deadline