AI-generated trailer for fake Disney movie about Pope Francis goes viral
A viral video appeared to show a ‘Walt Disney Pictures Presents’ trailer for a film about Pope Francis, in which the pontiff is played by a Black woman
CLAIM
A viral video appeared to show a ‘Walt Disney Pictures Presents’ trailer for a film about Pope Francis, in which the pontiff is played by a Black woman.
BACKGROUND
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, died on Monday, April 21 at the age of 88.
The death of the pontiff was not entirely unexpected; he had suffered a period of ill-health that recently resulted in an extended stay in hospital. However, despite being in recovery for double pneumonia, Francis had returned to work in the week prior to his death, and even made an appearance in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, April 20.
Footage was shared by multiple accounts showing a purported trailer for an upcoming Disney biopic about Pope Francis. In it, a Black woman plays the pope, and is seen facing crowds in St Peter’s Square and inside a chapel.
The movie, called ‘Pope Francis: The True Story’ was advertised as “coming soon”.
The footage went viral on Instagram, where it was shared by @mauricio_c.a.e, racking up more than 1.4 million views. The voiceover in the trailer is in English, but there are Spanish subtitles. The uploader is Mexican, according to his bio.
The video was later reshared on Instagram and on X.
METHOD
On this occasion, the hashtags used in the earliest upload of the video backed up our hunch that the video was AI-generated.
Beneath the caption — reading: “Disney Plus got weird…” — there is a range of hashtags. They are: “#Meme #memeespañol #Humor #AI #Disney #Pelicula #Trailer #InteligenciaArtificial #Comedia #Biopic #Biografia #Documental”.
The uploader does not seem to have a history of posting other AI-generated content. His other videos are mainly personal travel vlogs.
However, according to his bio, he has another account for creative work. Over there, we can clearly see that he uses AI-generated videos to go along with short extracts of writing.
The footage is very realistic but it has a soft, almost cartoon-like quality that is typical of AI-generated content. Often, the hands are a giveaway, and in this case, there is also something strange happening with the pope’s hands at various points.
They appear to blur and move unnaturally at a moment when her hand is coming down from her face, clipping into the crowd in the background who are blurred around the hand.
And, in a moment of prayer, it looks like there are either too many fingers, or, if it’s showing fingers from the other hand, they appear too thin and not consistent with how joined prayer hands would typically look.
The captions shared with the videos do, to varying degrees, make it somewhat clear that it is intended as a joke. From the context and comments around some of the posts, the joke is that Disney would hire a diverse cast for the film, even if the main character in it is a white man.
There are in fact a number of documentaries about Pope Francis that have been added to streaming platforms in the wake of his death, including a Disney+ feature called ‘Francis: The People’s Pope’. Netflix also added a documentary it had already carried in 2020, ‘Pope Francis: A Man of his Word’ directed by Wim Wenders.
Even while the pontiff was still alive but sick, speculation around his health led to a huge boost for the 2024 film ‘Conclave’, which was brought back to cinemas in some countries due to popular demand. On the day of the pope’s death, viewership of the movie abruptly rose, according to a data company that tracks streaming viewership.
Luminate reported that the minutes viewed rate for ‘Conclave’ rose 283% on Monday. There was also a dramatic spike in viewership of ‘The Two Popes’, indicating a major public appetite for pope-related content.
RATING
The trailer was AI-generated and shared around in the wake of Pope Francis’ death, amid a clear appetite for papal content.
SOURCES
Instagram. (2021). Mauricio Meneses on Instagram: ‘Se puso raro el Disney Plus… [online] [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].
Instagram. (2021). Nicholas Nico Jimenez on Instagram: ‘Disclaimer*** “Because people aren’t that smart these days… [online] [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: On the heels of the Disney box office sensation Off White…. Next up the story of Pope Francis ***IN THEATERS SOON [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].
Cremona, P. (2025). Pope Francis documentaries are now available to stream on Netflix and Disney Plus. [online] Radio Times. [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].
Shoard, C. (2025). Conclave viewership rose 283% on day of Pope Francis’s death. [online] the Guardian. [Accessed 24 Apr. 2025].