The debate over the role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking continues to intensify following the launch of On This Day… 1776, an animated historical series from Primordial Soup and TIME Studios, a division of TIME magazine.
Founded by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, Primordial Soup has partnered with TIME Studios to release the short-form series across TIME’s YouTube channel throughout 2026. The project blends traditional animation and post-production workflows with GenAI tools to dramatise moments from the American Revolutionary year of 1776, timed to the 250th anniversaries of the events depicted.
Episodes one and two are now available on Time’s YouTube channel, which currently has 1.52m subs. The premiere episode, January 1: The Flag, depicts the raising of the Grand Union Flag at Prospect Hill. The second episode, January 10: Common Sense, focuses on Thomas Paine’s arrival in the colonies and his collaboration with Benjamin Franklin, culminating in the publication of Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped galvanise public support for independence.
According to the producers, the series draws on historical records while presenting the American Revolution as an uncertain and evolving experiment rather than an inevitable outcome. Artists animated the series using a range of GenAI tools, while voice performances were provided by SAG actors. Each episode features an original score and was completed with conventional editing, mixing, and colour-grading.
The series is executive produced by Aronofsky, with a writers room led by Lucas Sussman. Jordan Dykstra composed the score. Production was supported by Salesforce, with Slack used to facilitate collaboration among a globally-distributed creative team. The project also incorporated AI tech developed by Google DeepMind.
New episodes of On This Day… 1776 will debut weekly on TIME’s YouTube channel throughout 2026, each aligned with the anniversary of the historical event it portrays. At time of writing, episode one had generated 85,000 views after four days.
The new project follows other recent AI-powered productions such as AiMation Studios’s AI reality series Non-Player Combat and Particle6/Xicoia’s Tilly Norwood character. Each project has sparked a lively debate – with The Guardian highly-critical of the new Aronofsky series’ production quality.
