Marvel’s Secret Invasion opening credits were created with AI

Marvel’s Secret Invasion is the latest entry into the long-running MCU. Hearkening back to the spy thriller vibes of older Marvel projects like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Secret Invasion follows former S.H.I.E.L.D. mastermind Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as he tries to stop the shape-shifting Skrull aliens from infiltrating Earth’s most influential circles of power.

Secret Invasion’s premise is a little more complex than your usual MCU story. The Skrulls are not outright villains; they were first introduced in Captain Marvel, where a young Nick Fury and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) promised to help them find a new home planet. But at this point, decades have passed and the Skrulls still don’t have a world to call their own. Instead, a whole generation has grown up with these hollow promises, and they’ve decided they don’t want just any world: they’re going to take Earth.

There’s a lot of paranoia in this series. The eerie opening credits tap into that, with various figures shaping and reshaping on top of a Skrull-green background. But there’s something else that’s eerie about the show’s opening sequence: it was made using AI.

Secret Invasion director explains using AI to create the opening credits sequence

According to Secret Invasion director and executive producer Ali Selim, the decision to use AI to shape the show’s opening sequence wasn’t just an aesthetic choice. “When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it — it just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?” he explained to Polygon. “We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.”

Selim admitted he doesn’t “really understand” how the AI tech worked. “It felt explorative and inevitable, and exciting, and different,” he said.

Method Studios, the company behind the opening, has previously worked on a number of Marvel series including Ms. Marvel, Loki, and Moon Knight, as well as For All Mankind and the “Battle of the Bastards” episode of Game of Thrones. They have yet to issue any kind of statement clarifying how AI was used in conjunction with human artists, which is a point of controversy surrounding the technology right now.

Whatever your opinion of AI, it’s important that a massive studio like Marvel is choosing to use it for one of its shows. While Hollywood writers are on strike right now to secure, among other things, regulations on how studios use AI, Disney is using AI rather than employing human artists to create the opening for the latest installment in the biggest franchise of our time. Make of that what you will.

The first episode of Secret Invasion is streaming now on Disney+.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels