Amazon’s ‘House of David’ Show Utilizes AI to Create Controversial Opening Sequence
Amazon Prime’s House of David is a certifiable hit. The critically acclaimed biblical epic attracted more than 22 million viewers in the first 17 days of its release, leading Amazon to greenlight a second season. Read our thoughts on the show here.
The series’ creative decisions in adapting the biblical text have sparked online debate. But last week, the show made headlines for a different reason. The sixth episode, “Giants Awakened,” opened with a high-spectacle sequence depicting a heavenly rebellion. It introduced audiences to the Nephilim, mysterious beings described in Genesis 6. Visually, there’s a lot happening in the scene—and apparently it was all created using AI.
Speaking to Variety, the show’s creator Jon Erwin said, “The entire scene is driven with generative AI tools as the horsepower to the scene. What we found is that these tools work when combined with traditional tools.”
The episode’s opening was originally slated to be a 90-second sequence with a much more limited scope. But Erwin explained that a combination of AI tools “allowed us to create these photoreal visuals and tell the story . . . in a budget and time frame that we could afford.” He concluded that without the use of AI, the sequence “would have been just far outside the budget parameters of the show.”
AI is a hot-button topic in Hollywood, and it was a key factor in the recent Writers Guild strike. So far, AI has been used only occasionally, most notably in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series’ opening and end credit sequences and in the horror film Late Night with the Devil. In other words, the House of David episode may be the most prominent use of the technology in movies or TV so far.
The creative decision is sure to be controversial. To date, the use of AI in Hollywood has largely been perceived as a nefarious, corporate-driven means of casting aside human artists in favor of cheaper technology. Thus, the optics of a faith-based show being the first to fully embrace the tool will rub some people the wrong way, possibly provoking negative emotions toward the Christian faith as a whole.
But as Erwin rightly notes, AI technology may also open the door for Christian creators to produce cinematic spectacle on a more level playing field with Hollywood’s legacy studios. Budget limitations have undoubtedly led to faith-based entertainment favoring smaller-scale, character-driven biopics and period dramas over high-spectacle fantasy or sci-fi shows. If money put a cap on the creative possibilities for Christian storytellers, then perhaps AI technology will enable more experimentation and diversity in the genre.
The debate surrounding the role of AI in art is unlikely to fizzle out any time soon. With notable shows like House of David adopting the technology to a greater degree, the conversation is likely to intensify. Regardless of whether the show’s decision to use AI is celebrated as an innovative step forward or scorned as a shameful miscalculation, having a faith-based property at the frontline of Hollywood’s technological revolution is a fascinating and unexpected development.
