Jeremy Renner is stepping into the future — literally and creatively. The Mayor of Kingstown star and Marvel’s former Hawkeye is lending his voice to Stardust Future: Stars and Scars, a groundbreaking animated feature being described as the first full-length film created entirely with artificial intelligence.
Set to hit theaters in November, the film reunites Renner with filmmaker Yi Zhou, following their previous collaboration on Chronicles of Disney. This time, Renner voices the Oracle of Time, a guiding narrator who leads audiences through a sweeping story that begins with the birth of the universe and travels all the way to the year 2080. The project also marks Renner’s first return to voice acting since his near-fatal snowplow accident in 2023.
The AI-powered production comes from Zhou’s company, Into the Sun Entertainment, a female-led, AAPI-founded studio operating across Los Angeles, Rome, and Hong Kong. Known for blending technology and storytelling, Zhou’s team developed a hybrid 2D and 3D animation style that mirrors the film’s core contrasts — between imagination and reality, past and future. The company says no previous feature has used AI to construct an entire narrative in this way.
Visually and thematically, the film takes inspiration from Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy and the works of composer Philip Glass. It explores climate crisis, human awareness, mortality, and the tension between technological progress and natural balance. Stardust Future also features a 3D digital rendering of fashion icon Diane von Fürstenberg and an original score that combines Zhou’s own compositions with music from the late Ennio Morricone, rearranged by the Into the Sun Collective.
Into the Sun Entertainment plans to mount an ambitious awards campaign ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards, with submissions across multiple categories including animated feature, original score, song, sound, editing, and visual effects.
In keeping with Renner’s philanthropic work, part of the film’s revenue will support two causes — his Rennervation Foundation, which aids foster youth and wildfire survivors, and the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which assists entertainment industry workers affected by California’s wildfires.
Operating at the intersection of creativity and technology, Stardust Future: Stars and Scars aims to push storytelling into a new frontier — one that uses AI not as a replacement for artistry, but as an extension of it.
Reported first by Variety.