These AI-generated John Wick posters are freaking people out

The latest AI art generators can be put to all kinds of productive uses. The stunning technology can be used to speed up workflows for creating film scenes, testing out artistic concepts and can even to allow plastic surgeons to show clients what they might look like post-op. Or they can be used to put John Wick into every film ever made.

Just as deepfake makers once used the tech to put Nicolas Cage into scenes from dozens of unlikely movies, now people who have their hands on AI art generators are putting Keanu Reeves' retired hitman John Wick into everything from Pixar posers to Ghostbusters and UFC. To see how it works, take a look at how to use DALL-E 2, or read on to see the examples.

John Wick has become an icon for our times. The former assassin out to avenge the death of a beloved puppy first appeared in cinemas back in 2014 and has already spawned two sequels, with a third to be released on March 23, 2023. We don't know a huge amount about the plot for John Wick Chapter 4, but we do that Pixar has nothing to do with it. Nor does John Wick join the Ghostbusters. But none of these things matters now that we have AI image generators.

Text-to-image art generators such as DALL-E 2 allow users to create almost any image that their fertile imaginations can dream up, simply by describing it in text. The tools use the many thousands of images and captions that they've been fed to generate a corresponding picture, often with frightening accuracy. Anything is possible, but it seems that what people want is John Wick. 

The artist BossLogic says he typed 'John Wick Pixar Poster’ into the DALL-E 2 to get the image above, and it does indeed look quite like a Pixar poster, although one for what would be the most violent Pixar movie ever made. The faces are also rather terrifying, with one of Wick's eyes looking like it's melting. As for the dog, well, we know Pixar loves to strike an emotional chord, so perhaps it's brought Wick's puppy Daisy back from the grave.

"John Wick if Tim Burton directed," one person suggests on Instagram, while someone thinks it "feels like the cover of a Little Golden Book". But BossLogic isn't the only one putting John Wick into film scenes and more. In fact, there's been quite a trend among users of AI art generators such as Wonder AI and Stable Diffusion as well as DALL-E 2. We've seen everything from John Wick in a UFC cage to John Wick in stained glass. Take a look at the examples shared on Twitter below.

AI art generators continue to improve and develop even more impressive (or scary) capabilities. Users can now use DALL-E 2 to edit real human faces, while the new DALL-E 2 outpainting feature allows users to expand the canvas of existing works of art. For more AI art fun, see our roundup of the weirdest AI art. We've also seen how the best AI art generators compare. And if you're looking for a fun way to waste some time, check out this AI Pokémon generator.

Read more:

• Disney was right to ditch its original Belle design for Beauty and the Beast
• AI-generated art won a fine arts competition – and artists are up in arms
• New animated Sonic logo revealed – and fans are rejoicing