Showrunner Aims to Turn Users into Content Creators for the 'Netflix of AI'

Edward Saatchi, co-founder of Oculus Story Studio, is betting big on generative AI with his new venture, Showrunner, a platform developed by his studio Fable. After the failure of VR storytelling at Oculus Story Studio — despite an Emmy win and a Meta acquisition — Saatchi learned a hard lesson: audiences weren’t ready for immersive tech that demanded too much of them. Now, he believes generative AI offers a more dynamic, interactive future for entertainment. Showrunner operates on a Discord server where users can generate short animated clips by selecting characters, art styles, and writing prompts. Want to see Elon Musk and Sam Altman debate turning homelessness into a software service? Showrunner can produce a clip that roughly matches the request. The output mimics the visual style of original shows like Exit Valley, a satirical blend of Silicon Valley and Family Guy, with AI-generated voices that imitate real people and animations that reveal their synthetic origins through stiff movements. Currently free, Showrunner plans to introduce a subscription model between $10 and $20 per month. While it currently uses only Fable’s original IP, major studios like Disney have expressed interest in licensing their intellectual property to the platform. This could allow users to prompt scenes featuring characters from franchises like The Mandalorian, creating entire new episodes or movies on demand. Saatchi sees Showrunner as the “Netflix of AI” — not a replacement for traditional media, but a new medium where users co-create content. He argues that the real power of generative AI lies in interactivity, not cost-cutting. Unlike many AI projects that aim to make cheaper versions of existing content, Showrunner is designed to let users explore virtual worlds through prompting, creating a sense of discovery. The inspiration for this vision came from a failed VR adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Wolves in the Walls. Saatchi’s team wanted a character named Lucy to have real-time, context-aware conversations with players — a goal that proved impossible with the tech available at the time. That experience led him to explore generative AI as a way to build fully realized digital beings with lives, relationships, and environments. Despite the platform’s current limitations — such as awkward animations and unfunny, formulaic humor — Saatchi remains convinced of its potential. He envisions a future where fans of a show can generate new scenes with licensed models, not just for fun, but as a way to deepen emotional connection to the source material. In this model, creators could earn revenue share based on how often their characters are used, offering a new income stream for indie artists. Still, critics question the ethics of turning users into unpaid laborers. While Saatchi claims Showrunner aims to empower creators, the reality is that studios would own all generated content, and users would pay to access it. The model echoes Roblox and Fortnite, where players create content that enriches corporate platforms without direct compensation. Ultimately, Saatchi’s vision is bold: a world where entertainment is not just consumed but co-created. But until Showrunner can deliver more than crude, mechanical animations and genuinely compelling storytelling, its promise of a new creative frontier may feel more like a fantasy than a revolution.