On This Day ... 1776

On This Day ... 1776 is a short-form animated series about the American Revolution, made by Primordial Soup, the studio founded by director Darren Aronofsky, with Google DeepMind, and published by TIME Studios on TIME's YouTube channel. Its first episodes and trailer appeared on 29 January 2026, and further episodes have followed through the year, timed to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Individual episodes run from a few minutes (the trailer is 44 seconds; episodes seen run about three to six minutes).

TIME describes the series as a combination of traditional filmmaking tools and emerging AI capabilities, and the YouTube description says it was made in part with AI from Google DeepMind. Reports on the launch say the visuals are generated with Google DeepMind's technology, while the voice actors are SAG-AFTRA-sanctioned and no AI voices are used. Primordial Soup's post-production team edits, mixes and colour-grades each episode after it is assembled. The makers have not named the specific models in the pages available. Aronofsky is credited as executive producer, Lucas Sussman leads the writing team, and Jordan Dykstra composed the score. Aronofsky has said a core group of about 25 people works on the series, and in July he announced a new direction for it, an anime-inspired episode built around a fight for freedom.

The series grew out of a partnership between Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind announced in May 2025, which has also produced the short ANCESTRA and the documentary Love, Rendered. Ben Bitonti, a studio resident at Google DeepMind, called the series a glimpse of thoughtful, creative, artist-led use of AI.

Reception has been sharply negative. Coverage of the launch reported a dislike-to-like ratio of about 26 to 1 on the trailer and first two episodes, with commenters comparing the series to AI-generated corporate holiday adverts. Tech and film outlets and YouTube commentators have called it slop, and critics have pointed to rapid cuts, characters that change between shots and period inaccuracies. The trailer has about 269,000 views and the first episode about 214,000 on YouTube, while later episodes draw a few thousand each. The project has also been noted as part of a wider debate over AI animation, a debate sharpened when Google removed AI videos made with Disney characters following a cease-and-desist letter. Aronofsky has said he is continuing the project.