Castle Walls review – Prime’s first fully AI-generated show is here, and it’s a Vaseline-smeared mess
Just as the world reels from Elon Musk’s AI-powered The Odyssey remake – though “remake” feels rather generous for a seven-minute splat of synthetic sludge – another bucket of AI gunk is dropped on to our faces. For Prime Video’s AI-generated TV series Castle Walls, produced by Turkish production studio Ay Yapım using a melange of generative video tools, has arrived, billed as the first end-to-end AI-created series to premiere on a major streaming platform. It’s certainly more epic than Musk’s production, consis…

In brief
Prime Video has released Castle Walls, a two-episode series set in the 11th century around Alamut Castle. Turkish studio Ay Yapım made it with a mix of generative video tools, and it is billed as the first end-to-end AI-created series to premiere on a major streaming platform.
The reviewer finds the characters unconvincing and the writing clumsy, though the critic concedes the technology is impressive and may reshape film. Public reaction to such works is described as cynical, and whether AI-made series can win audiences or coexist with human artists remains unsettled.
Main points
- Castle Walls consists of two 17-minute episodes produced by Ay Yapım using generative video tools.
- It is billed as the first end-to-end AI-created series on a major streaming platform.
- The reviewer says the human characters look plasticky and spectral, with the visuals overloaded with imagery.
- Human voice actors were used and the script was reportedly written by human screenwriters Kerem Deren and Çisil Hazal Tenim.
- The reviewer suggests AI should enhance rather than replace human creativity.
The problem
The AI-generated series Castle Walls falls short on visual realism and writing quality, and viewers appear more concerned with what AI threatens to take from human-made art than with what it promises.
The rundown
The series follows Hasan Sabbah, who arrives at Alamut Castle and recruits the warrior Azazil. The reviewer says it lacks a real sense of time or place and relies on heavy cinematic cliches such as milky sunsets and glowing moons.
Ay Yapım says the production did not bypass human skill but used AI to amplify it. The reviewer counters that this is hardly a boast given the writing quality, quoting lines the critic finds banal.
The review compares the early state of AI video to early silent films, which may be quickly eclipsed by better applications, and notes the piece follows Elon Musk's AI-powered Odyssey remake.
Sources
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-28
ace


The debate