Grok Imagine's 7-minute AI Odyssey draws ridicule

Grok Imagine, xAI's AI video tool, posted the first episode of an AI-generated Odyssey series on X on October 23, 2026. The account's caption read, "Watch Episode 1 of our Odyssey series made with Grok Imagine." It credited a creative collaboration with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker, both of whom work in AI filmmaking, Variety reported.

The clip is a step down from what Elon Musk promised. In July 2026, Musk wrote on X: "Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer." Episode 1 is roughly seven minutes of a planned series, not that movie. Startup Fortune reports it runs seven minutes and twelve seconds and was rendered in 4K at 3840 by 2160.

The reception was poor. TechCrunch's Anthony Ha watched the full clip and wrote that the dialogue is stilted, that the voiceover runs long, and that "the whole thing feels completely airless." India Today reported that critics found the dialogue stiff and the background narration far too long, and that viewers compared it to a video game cutscene they wanted to skip. The Independent reported viewers calling it "pure garbage," with one X user writing: "If this is what the richest man on the planet can come up with, I can safely say AI movies won't be replacing actual movies anytime soon."

What is Grok Imagine?

Grok Imagine is xAI's image-and-video generation tool. Its current video model, Grok Imagine Video 1.5, generates clips of up to 15 seconds at 480p, 720p or 1080p with native audio and lip-synced speech, according to xAI's documentation. xAI's pricing page lists the API at $0.08 per second at 480p, $0.14 per second at 720p and $0.25 per second at 1080p for Grok Imagine Video 1.5.

xAI has not said which model version produced the episode or what it cost. It has also not said how many episodes are planned, and it has not published a production breakdown. The Grok Imagine post offered one: "Let us know in the comments if you'd like a full breakdown of how it was done!"

The clip opens with Odysseus preparing to sail for Troy, Penelope handing him a wooden horse figurine for their infant son, and then cuts between the Greek army, the fighting at Troy and Telemachus training to fight, per The Independent. India Today reported that the characters speak English rather than ancient Greek and use British accents.

The catch

Grok Imagine Video 1.5 caps a single generation at 15 seconds, so a seven-minute episode is assembled from many shots, with planning, selection and editing between them. That is where the credited human collaborators come in, and xAI has not said how much of the work was automated.

What comes next

Musk's deadline is the end of 2026. Christopher Nolan's live-action Odyssey, which Musk criticized over its casting, opened in July 2026 and took $264.1 million worldwide in its opening weekend before passing $1.7 billion globally, per The Independent. Whether xAI ships the full film, and when, remains unannounced.

Episode 1 is on X at the Grok Imagine account; the Grok Imagine Video API is documented at docs.x.ai.