There’s a good chance that most South Africans were going to skip Netflix’s The Eternaut this weekend, largely due to the series’ Argentine origins, requiring subtitles or a dub (ew) to get invested. But after Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed that the series was the first to use entirely AI-generated VFX shots to save money during production, we’re guessing public interest will continue to dip. Or, it’ll skyrocket. People are weird.
Only the beginning of the end
Worse yet, Sarandos said that he was “thrilled” with the final result, which involved the collapse of the building, a sequence that the CEO claims would not have been viable for The Eternaut’s relatively low production costs. Back in the day, this might’ve forced the production team to get creative with its filming, or the higher-ups allotting a larger budget for a series that clearly needed it. It doesn’t bode well.
“In fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with visual, traditional VFX tools and workflows,” Sarandos told analysts during Netflix’s quarterly earnings call.
This isn’t Netflix’s first brush with the technology that’s dominated headlines for the past three years. The company was open about its use of AI to de-age a character in its Pedro Paramo film, and the cheaper cost associated with it, when compared to its de-ageing tech used in films like The Irishman.
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Don’t expect Netflix’s mindset to change. We wouldn’t be surprised to see more AI-generated shots in the future, even in bigger-budget productions. Sarandos was quoted (via The Hollywood Reporter) as saying that the use of generative AI in its shows will not only reduce costs but also make them better as well.
“We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper,” he said on Thursday. “Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualization and shot planning work, and certainly visual effects.”
Arguably, the scariest bit isn’t even Netflix only copping to the use of AI-generated imagery — it’s that those who have seen the show either couldn’t tell it apart from the real thing (or real CG-ed thing), or that they simply didn’t care. It’s worked once for Netflix, and we’re betting it’s going to work again. Any backlash it might face may only tell Netflix to hide it better, rather than ditch it altogether.
It’s too bad. A short breakdown detailing the extensive work poured into the VFX that took years of effort and all serve to make The Eternaut’s apocalyptic vibe feel real, shows just how much care and attention went into the production of what appears to be an interesting series. Whether Netflix’s admission of using AI in the final product will hinder its streaming numbers remains to be seen.
