Grok Imagine used for The Odyssey
The director Dev Walker and the studio Wonder Studios have created seven minutes of The Odyssey using images generated by Grok Imagine, an AI tool developed by Elon Musk's company xAI.Musk's promise and first episode
Elon Musk had promised in July a full-length film based on The Odyssey before the end of the year. He finally posted on X the first episode of a series, marking the beginning of his project.Contrast with Nolan's Odyssey
Elon Musk had spent months criticizing the casting of Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, which was entirely shot in IMAX 70 mm and released in France on July 15. A week later, he promised on X that his AI tool would produce a historically accurate adaptation by the end of 2026.Limitations of Grok Imagine
According to xAI documentation cited by ActuaLitté, Grok Imagine videos are limited to fifteen seconds at maximum, with possible extensions. The clips presented at the launch of the video generator in the summer of 2025 were also capped at this duration.Creating seven minutes of film
For seven minutes of an episode, it would take at least twenty-eight clips, not counting the rejected takes during editing. A human still signs the direction, and the teams of Grok Imagine credit a "creative collaboration" with Dev Walker and Wonder Studios.Launch of the episode
The studio accompanied the release of the episode with a formula on X: "Homer did not have Grok... we do." Between two clips, the director must mainly preserve the faces and costumes of the characters.Grok Imagine's guidance
In a guide published on X a few days before the episode, the Grok Imagine team advised gathering reference images in a canvas, then using these images to draw other characters and the sets. The episode, uploaded in 4K, features black-sailed ships crossing a grey sea and bearded men appearing one after another.Storyline and realism
The episode follows Ulysses leaving for the Trojan War, leaving his beloved Penelope and their infant son, Telemachus, on earth. A love story that must face the trial of separation. The rest is very "realistic" as you can see.Time pressure for the film
A little more than two months remain to deliver the promised feature film. Asked on X in July, the chatbot Grok had responded that the project of its owner had "low probabilities" of being completed before the end of the year, reported ActuaLitté.Uncertainty about future episodes
Elon Musk's company has not said how many episodes will follow, nor at what pace. Anthony Ha, journalist at TechCrunch, checked how much time was left even before the halfway point of the video, having easily followed the almost three hours of Nolan's film.Nolan's film success
Christopher Nolan shot his version with thousands of technicians and actors in six countries, and the worldwide box office of his Odyssey exceeds $1.1 billion. Hugo Travers asked him in July, for HugoDécrypte, if AI could end up as a Trojan horse.Nolan's response and symbolism
The filmmaker replied, laughing, "AI is a Trojan horse that everyone knows the Greeks are inside." A small sculpted horse figurine is just visible in the Grok episode, symbolizing the reference to the myth.Public engagement and transparency
In their post, the Grok Imagine teams offered internet users to tell step by step the making of the episode, if they requested it in the comments. For now, the number of generated clips and the human contribution in the editing are unknown.
