Let’s say you have a really cool idea for a film or tv series but don’t really have the budget to bring it to life in a typical Hollywood-esque style? Well, a few years ago, you would just have to live with the after thought, but today, thanks to generative AI, you can bring your ideas to life and it doesn’t even cost you a million dollars to implement. Case in point – The Eternaut on Netflix.
The Eternaut isn’t just any sci-fi series. It’s an adaptation of a beloved 1950s Argentine graphic novel, set against the chilling backdrop of Buenos Aires after a mysterious, deadly snowfall. The story needed drama. High stakes. And, in this case, the spectacular collapse of a building. But creating such a scene with traditional visual effects would have cost more than the entire show’s budget allowed.
Instead, Netflix’s internal VFX group and Argentine creatives turned to generative AI tools. The result? A pivotal sequence that, according to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, was finished about ten times faster than if they’d followed the usual painstaking VFX route.
How did they make it work?
The creative team used AI prompts—much like you would with Midjourney or DALL-E—to sketch out the collapsing building. The generated footage was then seamlessly blended into the live-action material. As Sarandos put it, the cost and speed were game-changing, making big-screen spectacle accessible to small-screen creators. For The Eternaut, “the cost of the special effects without AI just wouldn’t have been feasible”.
Real artists used AI as their assistant and not replacement
Netflix is careful to frame this not as a robot takeover, but as a creative boost for humans behind the camera. Sarandos emphasized: “This is real people doing real work with better tools.” AI here wasn’t used to replace jobs wholesale, but to unlock shots and scenes that previously would’ve been out of reach for most productions
Is this going to stick in the long run?
The entertainment industry is still debating: Is AI a threat to artists’ jobs or a way to level the playing field? Recent Hollywood labor disputes have centered around this very question, with unions seeking assurances that AI won’t be used to create digital doubles without consent or compensation. Netflix, for now, insists that AI is just another tool in the creative toolbox, and many can think of it as a way to unleash new stories, not cut corners on talent. Obviously, what comes next might change how you search and interact with shows, not just how you watch them. Netflix has already announced AI-powered features: natural language search (“something funny and upbeat” or “stories about dancers”) and smarter, genre-matching ads that might someday slot seamlessly into your favorite series.
What’s the big picture
With non-English titles making up a third of all Netflix viewing and nearly 95 billion hours of content streamed in just the first half of 2025, efficiency and creativity matter more than ever. For ‘The Eternaut’ though, AI didn’t just save money—it made a compelling story possible. Was the building collapse scene a showstopper? Viewers and critics say it blended right into the apocalypse, reminding us that, sometimes, the best special effect is the one you barely notice, and it looks like at the moment, the partnership between humans and generative ai to create visual effects is on the right track.
