2026’s Star Wars Meets WW1 Sci-Fi Horror Show Ersatz Is Officially On YouTube For Free

Published Sep 4, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The 2026 series that blends a sci-fi war and the visual setting of WW1-style trench warfare officially has two separate chapters out on YouTube for viewers to watch for free right now. There's a theoretically infinite amount of story possibilities when it comes to the world of sci-fi, as we've seen in no small way over the past decades - with stories detailing intricate conflicts and larger-than-life battles being one of the genre's most pervasive concepts. Be it Star Wars, Dune, Warhammer 40k, or in other sci-fi releases, the genre has fully and effectively embraced the idea of battles involving futuristic tech and larger-than-life characters both on-screen and off throughout the years, and to some great success, as many of the biggest sci-fi franchises of all time - and the best sci-fi movies - focus around this idea and the many ways it can be imagined. This backdrop helps to further explain the considerable success one sci-fi-leaning horror story has gained online following its release on YouTube, and means it's all the more of a must-watch, given its unique story and worldbuilding perfectly expands on one of the best and most potent story concepts of all time, while still making it its own in a clear and massively engrossing way. Ersatz Is A Sci-Fi Horror Story That Blends History & Nightmare Fuel Perfectly Blending the visual stylings and concepts of the far future and past, Ersatz is a sci-fi story that takes place in a setting wherein its characters have been locked into an endless seeming trench-style combat that has clear similarities to the world wars that occurred in real life, both visually and in terms of the intensive toll they seem to have taken on the characters within it. This is made all the more fascinating by the fact the world is clearly different to our own in terms of having some very futuristic and high-tech equipment, mainly in terms of the devices used to heal the wounds soldiers suffer during their conflicts - though this does come at a cost of using materials to heal that change the person in question forever, as evidenced perhaps best in Ersatz short film spinoff Trench Dogs, which sees one soldier's face combined with his beloved canine companion, since these devices waste no resources. As such, the Ersatz short film and its spinoff has some very unique visual stylings to say the least, and an undeniably engaging world to explore, as viewers learn more about the universe and its horrifying conflict, and watch the mysteries of this setting be unpacked, leading to some answers that are equal parts riveting and pure nightmare fuel material. The Ersatz Series Hasn't Finished Yet While the main short story pilot of Ersatz has released its 26-minute-long run on YouTube - and the first short tied to the series, Trench Dogs, also released on August 25, 2026 - the series has another confirmed short on the way, since the Ersatz Kickstarter reached the reward milestone that funded another chapter, this one titled Canary. Even after this, Ersatz is set to continue on further, as the artist who created the series - known on YouTube and socials as saint greaver - has announced that they will be continuing to release more of Ersatz thanks in part to the major success of the series on YouTube, wherein both the Ersatz pilot itself and the Trench Dogs short have gained over a million views each. Given how well the Ersatz series has done so far, there'll hopefully be many more releases set in the distinctive and delightfully nightmarish animated world in the months and years to come, especially since it's a world that clearly resonates with viewers and has already created plenty of interested fans.