AI unearths 10 mind-blowing movies that were never made—until now

It’s becoming increasingly clear that AI will be a big part of our future. While we ponder if this amazing technology is leading us to a tech nirvana or if it is sending us deeper into the darkest timeline, we can also use it to enjoy glimpses of alternate realities we may have missed out on.

Content creators are at the forefront of the AI revolution, using tools like Midjourney for imagery and those offered by ElevenLabs for voiceovers to create trailers for films that seem to come from other points in the multiverse. Their efforts allow us to experience the biggest movies ever as they might have been in other decades, with the stars and technologies of those times.

One of the artists using AI to show us these films that never were is Matthew Freire, who goes by stryder HD on various social media platforms. His videos have racked up millions of views with their fantastic visuals and clever casting.

One of stryder HD's most popular videos shows us a parallel 1990s version of Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring an in-his-prime Arnold Schwarzenegger and Halle Berry as Drax and Gamora, respectively.

Avengers circa 2000, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, could well have done even bigger box office than the version we got.

stryder HD's knack for casting is especially evident in this version of Lord of the Rings, starring Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, and Michael J. Fox.

Lord of the Rings has been a rich source of inspiration for these sorts of videos. YouTube channel Fantasy Images shows us what Tolkien’s Trilogy would have looked like as a Cyberpunk epic and it's pretty killer.

Channel Curious Refuge gives us yet another take on the Shireverse by filtering it through Wes Anderson's distinctive style.

Another YouTube channel, Abandoned Films, has a style all its own. Instead of looking back just 20 or 30 years, they go farther, all the way to the days of Super Panavision 70mm film.

It was hard enough explaining the Matrix in 1999, but at least we knew what computers were. Still, there's a certain charm to imagining the Wachowskis' masterpiece would look like in an age before the semiconductor.

You'd think the silly veneer of 1950s Hollywood would smooth some of the edges off Ridley Scott's horrifying film filled with the nightmare visions of H.R. Giger, but somehow, it doesn't.

There's a lot of 1950s-style storytelling in the original Star Wars movie, and George Lucas hasn't been shy about sharing his childhood inspiration for the story, but there's nothing like seeing what it could have looked like in his teenage imagination as you can in this video by Abandoned Films.

Imagining Frank Herbert's Dune in the 1950s evokes memories of any number of sword and sandal epics. "Behold, Arrakis..."

Whether AI will be a net good for humanity or not remains to be seen, but if it turns out to be more Skynet than R2D2 at least we'll have it around to let us glimpse what might have been if we hadn't let it enslave us all as batteries. At the very least, enjoy these clips to make yourself more familiar with what they can do so that you'll be ready to spot AI-generated content that might be used for less wholesome ends.

Editor's Note: The article was originally published in July 2024. It has since been updated.