It’s said that life imitates art, and vice versa, but in Secret Invasion we have A.I. art imitating actual art imitating life. Perhaps it was inevitable, but Marvel fans were still surprised to learn that the new Disney Plus series’ opening credits were designed by A.I., marking the first time that we’re aware of that Marvel Studios has employed any A.I.-generated work in one of its productions.
Even those vehemently opposed to A.I. being used in place of human-made art may find themselves somewhat swayed by director Ali Selim‘s argument for why its usage in Secret Invasion was perfect. While speaking to Polygon to unpack how the credits were brought to life, Selim revealed that the concept to use A.I. stemmed from the show’s subject matter, which involves humans being replaced by, not artificial intelligence, but shapeshifting aliens. He explained:
“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 went on to admit that he doesn’t “really understand” exactly how A.I. works, but he was drawn in by the way in which it could be utilized to translate “the sense of foreboding” he wanted to get across with the credits. He continued:
“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.”
While the use of A.I. art in a major Marvel production is already inspiring a lot of controversy online, setting aside the larger potential consequences of the studio beginning this practice it’s easy to comprehend why Selim believed it was a suitable thing to do for Secret Invasion. It’s just that if every subsequent MCU show uses A.I. credits sequences, denying us beautiful human-made ones like Daredevil, then Marvel may have a problem on its hands.