A colleague from the original Protoculture days recently shared with me a Youtube 3:20 min. clip of an (obviously) AI-made “live action” titled Robotech 2026. It brought back lots of memories. We were wondering if it was just a fan project made as a proof of concept or if it was the preview for a real studio movie. We did some digging…

Robotech 2026 is a fan-made short film directed by Peter Hyoguchi and created with AI (Grok) to simulate a live-action movie trailer inspired by the opening sequence of the Robotech animated TV series. It’s described as “a non-commercial fan film made for creative and educational purposes” and acknowledged that “Robotech and all related characters are the property of Harmony Gold”.

On Youtube, there is also a shorter (2:00 min.) clip for another project called Robotech: New Gen 2026 as well as a 0:30 teaser for the same project, which is the trailer for a hypothetical AI “live-action” adaptation of Robotech: New Generation. This one is really good (unless it is because New Generation has always been one of my favourite parts). I am really NOT a big fan of AI, but it is nevertheless an interesting proof of concept.

Apparently, Sony Pictures is still planning a Robotech live action written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and directed by Rhys Thomas, but I doubt it will ever see the light of day (although there is a terrible fan-made trailer for it!).

If you are interested in reminiscing further about Robotech and anime in general, you can check out my web site “Protoculture Memories”…