A zombie virus has overtaken South Los Angeles. Authorities, hoping to contain the outbreak, have decided to barricade the neighborhood, leaving residents to make do on their own. So begins They Left Us to Die, a new microdrama from media company Mansa that runs 30 episodes and is entirely AI-generated.
“The plague was made here, made on us, on purpose,” says Imani Cross, an emergency room nurse desperate for a cure to help her brother DJ, who’s been infected.
On Instagram, the trailer drew mostly favorable reaction when it was released on October 29. A cascade of fire emoji filled the comments section as anticipation mounted. But the following day, as the first episode was set to go live at midnight, new tensions began to stir. Why had Mansa created a show with zero human roles? Weren’t actors David Oyelowo and Nate Parker, the company’s founders, about uplifting artists of color, not erasing them?
“Mansa was one of the first vertical apps that was supposed to support and cultivate black talent, but here they are … another AI sellout,” said one user on Threads. “Why would any self-respecting casting director, producer, or director ever consider hiring Oleyowo again after this?” posted another. Actress Yvette Nicole Brown responded with a single note of disapproval: “*sigh* Mmkay,” she wrote, adding a gif of Viola Davis expressing irritation.
Parker wasn’t surprised by the backlash. “When we hear the words AI, it immediately drives us to the realities of what we are facing and the real lives it’s impacting,” Parker tells WIRED.
The problem is that while Hollywood is desperate for more expansive Black stories, not everyone agrees on the best way to make them happen.
As part of Mansa’s development strategy, the company says it is using AI as a chess piece rather than a replacement for human-centered content. The power comes in leveraging a show like They Left Us to Die as a way to bring more awareness to what Black audiences will support. He describes the approach as “holding the line on our very existence” in an industry that’s consolidating, and being able to “use all the tools that we have at our disposal to make sure we can staff up around shows that get greenlit.”
In the shrinking Hollywood of today, a series about a Black ER nurse fighting off a zombie virus unleashed on her neighborhood by white people would likely struggle to find the backing of a major studio without first having proved its value 10 times over. Mansa’s strategy is to test the appetite of audiences with its AI shows. Parker believes this will demonstrate to studios that there is a demand for those kinds of stories before committing to a live production.