Amazon’sHouse of DavidUsed Over 350 AI Shots in Season 2. Its Creator Isn’t Sorry (www.wired.com)

Amazon Prime’s House of David season 2 leaned heavily on generative AI to stretch a modest VFX budget: showrunner Jon Erwin’s Wonder Project used between 350 and 400 AI-generated shots (up from ~70 in season 1) to create crowds, stone fortresses, fires, foggy landscapes and wide battle vistas. The team combined a “stack” of 10–15 core tools — image generators, up-resolvers and video generators — including Runway, Luma and products from Google and Adobe, often compositing real actors and camera work over AI-created environments. Erwin describes the approach as a new form of “principal photography,” where live-action performances are puppeted into digitally generated worlds. The move matters because it illustrates how affordable, production-grade generative tools can scale epic visuals without traditional VFX costs, accelerating adoption across independent and niche studios while raising industry-wide questions about labor, consent, copyright and artistic taste. Reactions are mixed: audiences haven’t balked and the series drove subscriptions, but critics and creators (Guillermo del Toro, Justine Bateman) warn of creative and ethical risks. Unions like SAG‑AFTRA are monitoring use and have negotiated protections for likeness rights, while vendors and studios explore custom training deals. House of David is a concrete example of AI shifting workflows from occasional assist to core production technique — lowering costs and opening creative possibilities, but amplifying legal, environmental and workforce debates.