Artificial intelligence is having an increasing impact in the media industry, and the latest example is the opening titles for Marvel’s new TV series “Secret Invasion” about shape-shifting aliens.
The spinoff series, starring Samuel L. Jackson as MCU’s own Nick Fury, premiered on Disney Plus yesterday. In the series, Fury teams up with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) to stop the shape-shifting Skrulls who have secretly infiltrated Earth’s population.
With thousands of Skrulls constantly changing their appearance, the series plays with the idea of what can or cannot be trusted in terms of what is seen. Characters’ faces can suddenly transform into someone else—or something else. This is especially true for the series’ opening titles, a watercolor interpretation of the show’s characters and themes.
Director and executive producer Ali Selim told entertainment website Polygon that the sequence was designed by Method Studios, which used AI—an approach he believes relates to the show’s themes.
“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?” Selim says.
Although he (like many of us) doesn’t fully understand how AI works, he was fascinated by how it could interpret the show’s premonitions.
“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.” Method Studios has previously worked on Marvel series like “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” and “Moon Knight,” as well as two seasons of “Game of Thrones.”
