Grimes joins AI-generated film Gods Don't Give Gifts with her voice and likeness, in US theaters December 4

Grimes is in the AI-generated film Gods Don’t Give Gifts, and the voice you hear is really hers.

The casting came out on November 5, 2026. Grimes plays Zayinth Alda in the film from director Zack London, who runs the YouTube channel Gossip Goblin. Billboard reports that the visuals are AI, while her voice and dialogue are not.

It opens in US theaters on December 4, and TheWrap calls it the first AI-generated film to get a US theatrical release.

Who Grimes plays in Gods Don’t Give Gifts

Zayinth Alda is described in the release as “a disaffected NiiroCore aristocrat”. The character was created for Grimes, and her voice and likeness both go into it.

“I have always loved Grimes as a musician and been a fan of her persona,” London told Consequence. After he approached her, the filmmakers rewrote the role around her and worked with her on the character’s design.

The official clip is out now. Her AI-animated character tells someone off with “You dragged me to the slag heaps for this? A slideshow of derivative drivel?” and storms away with a huge faceless guard behind her.

What’s AI and what’s human in Gods Don’t Give Gifts

The images are AI. The writing, voices and music are people. London told TheWrap that about 2 dozen cast and crew worked on the film, including a dozen voice actors, plus foley artists (the people who record footsteps and doors to picture), sound mixers, animators and musicians.

A promo image from Gossip Goblin shows some of the process. You can see generator screens set to Google Nano Banana Pro, reference images, and prompts that name her, such as “a portrait of her. she is grimes.”

The filmmakers think this casting model will spread. “Casting the likeness of an actor with their spoken vocal performance will become more common with animated films using AI,” the release says, naming musicians as one of the groups that will do it.

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AI means I don't have to write scripts with a budget in mind.

Gods Don’t Give Gifts release date and how it’s getting into theaters

The US release is December 4, and the film is going out independently. Saatchi, the CEO of Fable and the film’s co-producer, says he’s targeting nearly 1,000 theaters to start, with a booker getting it into cinemas.

That’s the route Mark Fischbach, known as Markiplier, took with Iron Lung, which went on to make more than $50 million worldwide, per TheWrap. London has a built-in audience too, with 1.6 million subscribers on Gossip Goblin.

Consequence says the filmmakers count roughly 16 million trailer views across platforms, and that a For Your Consideration campaign for Best Animated Feature has already started.

How Grimes’ film role fits her record on AI

Grimes has talked about AI in big terms. Consequence quotes her calling it the “most dangerous thing that’s ever going to happen” and “bigger than Jesus”.

Her own work splits it by medium so far. She says her album Psy Opera uses no generative AI, except DeepSeek lyrics on one song. Her team confirmed that the Accelerando video has AI-generated elements next to a crew of more than 70.

The film follows that same pattern, with AI in the images and her own voice on the soundtrack. It’s also landing the same week Nile Rodgers is defending his AI music video in his Instagram comments.

If you want to try AI visuals on your own music first, my AI music video generators roundup is the place to start. For Grimes and Zack London, December 4 is when you find out if people will pay to watch it in a cinema.