Art made with artificial intelligence is starting a lot of conversations. One artist’s masterful use of the AI program Midjourney tricked a lot of people into thinking Tom Holland will be playing Link in a The Legend of Zelda Netflix movie. And honestly, we’d watch it. Unfortunately, it’s not real. Yet. After all, Holland’s track record of wish fulfillment casting includes his most famous role as Spider-Man. But maybe Dan Leveille’s AI art could very well be the first step to making this a reality. He shared a variety of posters showing Holland as the Hylian hero. They vary in their realism and ear pointy-ness, but on the whole, the character design is stunning. The project also spread to fan-casting every character a The Legend of Zelda movie… And also to casting Tom Holland as every character in a The Legend of Zelda movie called Temple of Tom.
Tom Holland as Link in AI Art
We saw these amazing “teaser photos” on Geeks Are Sexy. While we continue to wait for that Breath of the Wild sequel, let’s add “Tom Holland plays Link in a Legend of Zelda movie” to our wish list. Leveille’s Instagram feed is full of other AI art, including other versions of Link as well as realistic versions of Super Mario characters.
Leveille took it one step farther after the artwork gained popularity online. He had OpenAI’s GPT-3 program write a script to go with them. The prompt? Link revealing he’s gay. It’s great and leads to dialogue like “I’m not just the hero of time, I’m also the hero of gayness.” Again, we’d watch it. Just maybe not the version where every line is delivered in the voice of an AI program.
The Full Cast of the AI-Generated The Legend of Zelda Movie
Now, the whole cast of Netflix’s fake live-action Zelda can also be seen via AI. Take a look at what Leville created. From Emma Watson as Zelda to Idris Elba as Ganon to Gemma Chan as the Great Fairy to Sadie Sink as Malon, we support this whole cast.
Tom Holland as Every Character in The Legend of Zelda
Hilariously, many across the internet missed that this Tom Holland-led The Legend of Zelda movie came from an AI generator. Unsurprisingly, parts the internet believed Tom Holland would really star in the fake Netflix production. (He won’t!) In the spirit of that, Leville created even more AI art for his fictional piece. In this latest version of The Legend of Zelda meets Tom Holland, Tom Holland actually plays every role in the movie. Leville calls this movie: Temple of Tom.
Check it out:
This artwork is certainly less unsettling than some other movie posters created using Midjourney and a similar program called DALL-E. Midjourney has also shown what characters from The Simpsons would look like in real life. This version of fan-casting is an interesting use of AI. We’re intrigued.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
Originally published on September 20, 2022.