A new cutscene in Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep, released on June 20, attracted some unwanted controversy after it was discovered that one of its illustrations appeared to have been lifted from fanart created by artist Julian Faylona in 2020.
Word quickly spread amongst the community, and the artist’s tweet depicting the comparisons was boosted by prominent content creators such as Benj and Skarrow9.
Today, on June 22, Bungie acknowledged the issue via the Destiny 2 Team account and has confirmed that the piece of fanart—originally titled The Veil of Darkness—was “mistakenly” used in reference by an external party that was assisting in production of the cutscene. The studio has reached out to Faylona to apologize and compensate them following the mixup.
“We’ve discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie art,” the statement from Bungie explained. “We have reached out to the artist to apologize for the mix-up and to credit and compensate them for their awesome work.”
The original fanart makes use of iconography that has been a staple of Destiny 2’s story for many years now, which is how it could have been mistaken for an official work. However, the layout of the piece and the unique halo graphic behind the head of the veiled statue give away its point of origin. As the artist said when originally making the comparisons, the similarities are “uncanny.”
This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened in Destiny 2. In 2021, a promotional trailer for The Witch Queen featured an investigations board with a variety of images pinned to it. One of these was art depicting Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, that looked eerily similar to artwork posted by relay314 a year prior. Xivu Arath was yet to be officially depicted clearly at this time, and didn’t really have an official design, which made the inspiration point stand out that much more. Bungie later reached out to the artist, and they gave their permission for their artwork to be used.
The Season of the Deep cutscene depicts the origin story of the Witness and the Veil, two major forces in Destiny 2 that have been a mystery to the playerbase up until now. Despite playing a key role in Lightfall, their stories were kept under wraps until now. This is undoubtedly the first step of many on the road to The Final Shape in 2024, where the Witness is expected to be the central antagonist in the conclusion to the Light and Darkness saga.
