Filmmaker David Goyer—renowned for his work on the Blade trilogy, The Dark Knight, and Apple TV’s Foundation—has unveiled a bold new science fiction universe, Emergence, built on blockchain and AI to pioneer a community-driven approach to storytelling. Backed by Web3 startup Story Protocol, Emergence is being developed within Incention, Goyer’s new blockchain platform, with the goal of democratizing content creation and breaking away from Hollywood’s traditional, top-down IP models
At the recent CoinDesk Consensus conference in Toronto, Goyer and Story Protocol’s SY Lee described how Incention and Emergence will empower fans to co-create alongside professional storytellers. Community members can develop characters, contribute stories, and even influence which creations become part of the official canon, with decisions guided by both upvotes and an editorial board chaired by Goyer himself. The project is underpinned by a 2,500-page story bible and contributions from acclaimed concept artists and award-winning sci-fi authors, while an AI agent named “Atlas” will help contributors build within the universe’s narrative framework
Story Protocol, which has raised over $80 million from investors including a16z and Endeavor, provides the infrastructure for secure IP registration, transparent licensing, and royalty sharing—enabling creators to remix, license, and build upon each other’s work while retaining rights and revenue according to programmable rules. Goyer sees this as a way to give both established and emerging creators a stake in the franchise’s success and to foster innovation in the entertainment industry.
STroy is proud to sponsor the BLI Legal Tech Hackathon, supporting the next wave of legal and creative innovation at the intersection of blockchain, IP, and community-driven storytelling. For more on how Story Protocol is powering collaborative creativity and legal innovation, visit Bli Legal Tech Hackathon to register and build on Story.
Goyer sums up the project’s ethos: “AI, Web3, blockchain—none of this stuff is going away. The whole world’s becoming tokenized. For my sake, I just thought this is something I need to learn about and get involved in… It’s really about deciding whether I’m going to stick my head in the sand, or I’m going to have a seat at the table and see, in my own small way, whether or not I can help guide this in a way that’s beneficial to creative types like myself”
