In the age of digital transformation, Hollywood is undergoing a seismic shift, and it is not just about streaming wars or superhero fatigue, the newest wave shaking up the industry is artificial intelligence. And while debates over copyright, ethics, and artistic integrity rage on, one thing is becoming undeniable, and that is that AI is already inside the machine. From streamlining production costs to generating entire trailers without a single frame filmed, Hollywood’s top studios are diving headfirst into this uncertain new world. And in some cases, they are dragging beloved franchises like The Hunger Games, Twilight, and John Wick along for the ride, but in anime form.
Astonishingly, what once seemed like far-flung science fiction is now a tangible business model, according to Vulture. AI companies like Runway are partnering directly with studios like Lionsgate to “repackage” their franchises into different formats, including anime. Imagine Katniss Everdeen redrawn in sleek 2D animation or Bella Swan exploring Forks through painterly, surreal AI visuals. It is not just an artistic experiment, it is a commercial reinvention. And thanks to new AI tools, these transformations could happen in a matter of hours rather than months. But beneath the surface of this innovation lies a far more complicated story about desperation, reinvention, and the evolving definition of creativity itself.
The Rise of AI-Driven Anime in Hollywood
Why The Hunger Games and Twilight Could Be Next in Line for Anime
The past few years have not been kind to traditional Hollywood. Layoffs have surged. Theatrical attendance has dropped. Production budgets have ballooned while profits stagnated. As studios struggle to greenlight ambitious projects under tighter financial constraints, AI has emerged as a seductive lifeline and a potential solution to Hollywood’s bloated spending and shrinking returns. “You need $30 million to make a movie, and you have $15 million,” explained one Hollywood technologist. “AI is becoming the bridge.”
Related
Amid Toei’s AI Controversy, the Anime Industry Is Pushing Back: “Aren’t We Shooting Ourselves In the Foot?”
Toei Animation’s AI controversy has sparked even more discussion about whether or not the use of AI in anime is acceptable and the right move.
This urgency has made room for studios like Asteria and companies like Runway to flourish. AI-generated VFX, digital actors, and animated backdrops are being integrated quietly and often without public acknowledgment. Studios are hesitant to reveal their reliance on generative tools, in part because the technology is still controversial and in legal limbo. But privately, executives are asking with increasing regularity how they can use AI to save their budgets.
Even A-list directors like James Cameron and Darren Aronofsky are joining the AI arms race. Cameron, whose blockbusters require massive technical operations, recently warned that unless costs are halved, fans will not see many more tentpoles. Meanwhile, Aronofsky partnered with Google’s DeepMind to explore AI filmmaking tools. In a Hollywood that’s rapidly downsizing, AI is not just about artistry, it is survival.
The Hunger Games, Twilight, and the Rise of AI-Powered Adaptation
Controversy Brews as Top Anime Studios Test AI Tools
With animation, especially anime, studios have found a versatile new playground for AI experimentation. Lionsgate’s partnership with Runway illustrates this pivot most clearly. Vice-chairman Michael Burns described how, thanks to Runway’s tools, the studio can now generate an anime version of The Hunger Games in just a few hours, complete with a PG-13 rating, ready for resale. It is a bold new monetization strategy, leveraging existing IP with minimal new production.
Franchises like Twilight, which might struggle to find new live-action footing, could now be transformed into experimental or serialized anime spinoffs, appealing to a younger, global streaming audience.
Anime, long admired for its stylistic freedom and budget efficiency, is now being recast through the lens of AI. Franchises like Twilight, which might struggle to find new live-action footing, could now be transformed into experimental or serialized anime spinoffs, appealing to a younger, global streaming audience. The logic is simple, because AI allows for rapid production of animation at a fraction of the usual cost. In turn, studios can test new markets, repackage old stories, and maximize IP value.
Yet this new approach is also raising alarms. Human animators, particularly in Japan, are already protesting the use of AI in anime production. While studios like Netflix and Toei Animation are cautiously exploring AI-enhanced backgrounds or coloring tools, platforms like Crunchyroll have openly rejected AI use. The ethics of AI-generated anime remain murky, particularly when it comes to artistic authenticity and employment. But from Lionsgate’s perspective, the creative possibilities, and profit margins, may be too good to ignore.
Secrets, Legal Storms, and the AI Studio That Thinks It Can Change Hollywood
Studios Are Desperate, But Will Audiences Buy In?
The mainstreaming of AI in filmmaking has not come without significant secrecy and controversy. Despite over 35 ongoing copyright lawsuits against AI companies, many studios are pressing forward. Some even avoid publicly disclosing when AI is used, fearing backlash from talent, unions, and audiences. Natasha Lyonne, co-founder of the AI film studio Asteria, admitted many directors quietly use AI while calling it something else like “machine learning.” Transparency is rare. But curiosity is widespread.
Even “ethical” AI studios are navigating uncharted waters where creative credit, compensation, and control are all up for grabs.
Asteria positions itself as an “ethical” AI studio, claiming its model is trained only on licensed content. That is a strategic counter to concerns about AI tools scraping copyrighted material without permission. Still, it is a shaky foundation. Even “ethical” AI studios are navigating uncharted waters where creative credit, compensation, and control are all up for grabs. For talent agencies like CAA, which now scan and archive actors’ digital likenesses, the legal and moral terrain is still shifting fast.
What is possibly most unsettling to traditionalists is how AI flips the power structure in Hollywood. In the past, greenlighting a blockbuster required huge investments, elaborate shoots, and long post-production timelines. Now, a studio can generate a trailer for a film that does not even exist and use it to raise funding or test audience interest. As Lionsgate’s Burns put it, “We’re banging around the art of the possible.” It is not just the how of filmmaking that is changing, it is the when, and the why.
Anime, AI, and the Future of Franchises
Hollywood’s AI Future Hinges on Trust, Talent, and Timing
AI is no longer a futuristic curiosity in Hollywood, it is a central player in the present. From anime adaptations of major franchises to synthetic actors and algorithmically designed set pieces, the technology is everywhere. Studios are no longer asking if they should use AI, but how fast and how far they can go. In many ways, it reflects Hollywood’s oldest habit: chasing spectacle, cutting costs, and reshaping itself for whatever medium comes next.
But even as franchises like The Hunger Games and Twilight prepare to be reborn in anime form, larger questions loom. Will audiences embrace AI-generated art as authentic entertainment? Can animators, writers, and actors survive a system that may sideline them for software? And if litigation finally catches up with the innovators, will the whole experiment collapse under its own legal weight?
Related
The Studio Behind Pokémon and The Apothecary Diaries Is Ready to Embrace AI
AI in anime is a controversial topic, but OLM Digital, the creators of The Apothecary Diaries and Pokémon anime, are ready to implement it.
Still, in a town built on reinvention, AI may just be the next great reboot, not only of IP, but of Hollywood itself. Whether that reboot succeeds or crashes spectacularly will depend not on the machines, but on the people guiding them and how much they are willing to risk for the future they believe is already here.
-
- Created by
-
Suzanne Collins
- First Film
-
The Hunger Games
- Cast
-
Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Willow Shields, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman
- Movie(s)
-
The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Hunger Games is a multi-movie franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. The films are based on the young adult dystopian book series by author Suzanne Collins. The first film was released in 2012, followed by Catching Fire in 2013, Mockingjay Part 1 in 2014, and Mockingjay Part 2 in 2015. In 2023, the fifth film in the series was released, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
-
- Movie(s)
-
Twilight The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
- First Film
-
Twilight (2008)
- Cast
-
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Billy Burke
- Character(s)
-
Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Alice Cullen, Carlisle Cullen, Esme Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale, Charlie Swan
- Comic Release Date
-
189623
Based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling novels, the Twilight film franchise unfolds the intense and tumultuous romance between Bella Swan, a quiet high school student, and Edward Cullen, a centuries-old vampire. Set against Forks, Washington’s moody, rain-soaked backdrop, their forbidden love story evolves amidst a world filled with otherworldly dangers and supernatural beings. As their saga progresses, they confront malicious vampires, protective werewolves, and the mysterious laws of the vampire world
