Millions of people have watched a new trailer featuring Henry Cavill as James Bond, but there’s one small problem — it’s an AI fake.
On April 13th, the YouTube channel KH Studio, which focuses on creating “concept trailers,” uploaded a new video titled “Bond 26 — First Trailer | Henry Cavill, Margot Robbie.”
Right off the bat, though, there are quite a few things that look… off. First, the thumbnail featuring Cavill and Robbie looks all smoothed out in an uncanny valley sort of way, and that continues throughout the trailer. On top of that, Cavill strangely has an off-sounding American accent instead of Bond’s signature English tones, which would also just be Cavill’s natural speaking voice. There’s also very little of the action you’d expect from a Bond film.
At the time of writing, the trailer has racked up more than 2.5 million views, no doubt fuelled by long-running fan casting of Cavill as the iconic British spy. Cavill even auditioned to play Bond in Casino Royale, with director Martin Campbell saying he would have been an “excellent” fit had Daniel Craig not ultimately won the role.
Of course, it’s hard to say how many people watched the trailer simply out of morbid curiosity versus those who were genuinely fooled. The title of the video offers no indication that it’s fake, although KH Studio does note in the description that it’s a “concept trailer created solely for artistic and entertainment purposes” using various effects, including “AI technologies.” It should also be noted that fan-made trailers for movies have been around for many years, long before AI tech was readily available.
On the flip side, though, it’s been well-documented how AI can steal from actual artists. It’s one thing to cut together a “trailer” of Cavill Bond using existing footage from his movies, but it becomes murkier when AI is involved. That’s to say nothing of how susceptible people already are to fake news, so it’s a slippery slope to create AI-powered videos that can further fool millions.
The Bond franchise, meanwhile, is in a quiet period right now following the end of Craig’s run in 2021’s No Time to Die. In February, series producer Barbara Broccoli said there’s no update on the status of the next Bond film, including who might play the lead himself.
Image credit: Warner Bros.
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