Character.AI, the platform that lets people chat with customizable AI avatars, is entering the microdrama market by producing short, AI-generated drama series featuring its own characters. The company says these productions were created using AI production tools and are designed to leverage the conversational core of the product.
Initial titles and interactive twist
The startup is launching three microdramas to start:
- Last Summer — a romance series
- The Nighttime Game — a horror series
- Eden Fall — a survival drama with a Hunger Games-like premise
A key differentiator is interactivity: users older than 18 can chat with characters from these shows, ask them questions, and roleplay alternate storylines directly with the on-screen personas.
A Character.AI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the c.ai Series will begin with a studio-led model so the production team can develop the format, refine workflows, and learn what audiences want from Character-native microdrama entertainment. Over time, the plan is to convert those learnings into creator tools that enable users to make their own series from original Characters and share them globally.
Related features and experiments
The move follows several other entertainment-focused features the company has rolled out or teased. In April, Character.AI introduced Lorebook, a tool for creating world-building information that characters can reference. It also launched Books, a feature that lets users insert themselves into select classic literature titles or roleplay as characters from those works.
On Thursday the company said it is also testing c.ai FM, a feature for assembling audio series, and c.ai Reads, a tool for creating fiction. The audio series feature is currently available to select users through the experimental c.ai Labs program; Character.AI says professional writers are using it to create serialized audio dramas.
Why it matters
There is an audience for short, character-driven entertainment: according to Sensor Tower, users spent more than 950 minutes per month on Character.AI in the first half of 2026. By combining AI-produced microdramas with direct conversational access to characters, Character.AI aims to both attract viewers and eventually empower creators to build and distribute their own interactive series.
