The director of the Marathon reveal cinematic short has expressed his disbelief that he feels forced to come out and defend the work as “not AI.”
The Marathon cinematic short, below, is over eight minutes long and sets the scene for Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter with a voice cast that includes the likes of Elias Toufexis and Ben Starr. It was written and directed by Alberto Mielgo, who created The Witness for Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and won an Oscar for The Windshield Wiper in 2022.
In an Instagram post, Mielgo hit out at those who accused the Marathon cinematic of being built using generative AI, insisting it took 155 staff months to put together.
“I can’t believe we’ve reached a point where I have to clarify this, but here it goes: this is not AI,” Mielgo said. “HELLO. Everything you see in this film: paintings, animations, 2D and 3D work, compositing, and renders done with huge team — 155 incredible people and hell of hours, days, months… Yes, our Achilles’ heel: time.”
He continued: “Many of you ask me what my opinion on AI is… Honestly, I have no idea. But one thing is certain: AI will never take away my (your) urge or joy for making art and painting. That part will never be replaced.”
As technology improves, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between videos created via generative AI prompts and traditional animation efforts. And with a lack of legislation forcing generative AI disclaimers onto output, audiences are left to try to work it out themselves.
The issue over what is generative AI and what isn’t has spilled over into the realm of deepfakes, too, with a number of celebrities hitting out at the technology. In July, it was reported that John Wick star Keanu Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.
Meanwhile, Mielgo appears to have also addressed the Marathon plagiarism controversy that rocked Bungie earlier this year. The Game Post reported that Mielgo replied to one Instagram comment to say the incident was overblown, but those comments are now deleted.
Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development. After having a September 2025 release date set (the cinematic was released when this release date was still planned), Bungie delayed the game into 2026 to make adjustments based on feedback from playtests.
The pressure is indeed on Marathon to succeed amid Destiny 2’s high-profile struggles. Earlier this month, parent company Sony said the studio had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
