Neglect AI changing human artists—The Satan Wears Prada 2 simply proved that human artists can substitute AI.
The brand new film, a long-awaited sequel to 2006’s The Satan Wears Prada, sees the return of star Meryl Streep as iconic vogue editor Miranda Priestly. It begins with Priestly in a PR disaster, sparking a slew of on-line hate. That features memes like a picture of Priestly dressed as a fast-food employee captioned, “Would you want lies with that?”
The picture is barely briefly on display, and at first look, many moviegoers assumed it was AI-generated. In any case, on the web of 2026, it most definitely can be—an web troll seemingly isn’t going out of their strategy to craft the picture by hand.
However after The Satan Wears Prada 2 hit theaters on Might 1, digital artist Alexis Franklin took to social media to set the document straight: She’s the one who created the art work, not AI, on the request of director David Frankel.
On Instagram, Franklin posted the art work together with a timelapse of her digital portray course of. “Completely no disrespect to Queen Meryl, however that is one thing I might’ve painted in my free time, so once they requested me to do that it was nothing however enjoyable,” she wrote within the caption.
Franklin also shared her art on X, writing that her Instagram put up had been “flooded with feedback of reduction that this gag in The Satan Wears Prada 2 was created by an precise human (me), so I figured I’d additionally put up it right here as a result of I feel these corporations ought to get their flowers once they hire an artist.”
‘Individuals do crave actual artwork’: Social media celebrates human artists
The story behind Franklin’s art work rapidly went viral, along with her X put up amassing 3.7 million views. Many customers praised the Satan Wears Prada 2 workforce for staying true to the pro-artistry message of their movie and hiring a human artist, even when utilizing an AI-generated picture would have made sense for the plot.
“That is genuinely one of many coolest issues I’ve seen a film do,” reads one viral response. “Would’ve been really easy to AI generate one thing for the film however they held themselves to the next customary which I actually actually respect.”
“Individuals do crave actual artwork and never AI slop and this can be a proof,” wrote another user.
A 3rd consumer mentioned they hope different movies will observe in The Satan Wears Prada 2’s footsteps relating to telling tales about AI. “There’s a motive that it all the time disappoints me to no finish when folks assume that the one strategy to painting AI in a film is by really utilizing AI,” they wrote. “Clearly options all the time exist.”
An unintentional assertion in opposition to AI
Although social media largely assumed Franklin’s artwork was deliberately replicating AI’s signature artwork model, she’s since clarified that any similarities to AI had been completely coincidental.
In a series of follow-up posts on X, Franklin emphasised that she “was not advised to imitate AI” and the features of her drawing folks assumed had been nods to AI, together with the blurred lettering and font inconsistencies within the background, had been simply meant to be impressionistic.
“I used to be simply employed to create an affordable meme and the context of the film has everybody, understandably, considering I used to be emulating AI,” Franklin wrote.
In an email to NBC News, Franklin mentioned she understands the place folks’s suspicions come from, however that assuming human-made artwork is AI can have actual, adverse penalties for artists.
“This mass hypervigilance prevails as a result of folks don’t need to be fooled, main them to see indicators on the partitions that aren’t actually there or which have quite simple, affordable explanations,” she wrote. “And it’s exhausting to know what the answer is.”
“AI is so prevalent now, it seems like folks have forgotten the way it acquired that good—it studied us,” Franklin added. “The strategies it makes use of are ours!”
