Marvel gave MCU fans the first trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps early on Tuesday, and the studio did it in the best way possible, considering what’s happening in the movie. The company hosted a launch event on Tuesday morning meant to mimic the launch of a new space rocket. The Fantastic Four will be going to space at least once in the movie, which is set in the 1960s in a different reality.
Marvel’s livestream started at 7:00 AM, featuring an hour of uninterrupted video that looked like archival footage. In the background, the voices of space flight engineers were heard as they reviewed the final checks before the launch.
The Future Foundation broadcast ended at 8:00 AM when the actual Marvel show started. The four stars made a surprise appearance to answer a few questions before releasing the first teaser trailer for the highly anticipated Fantastic Four reboot.
I thought the way Marvel handled the release of this particular trailer was a welcome change of pace. Usually, these clips are posted on YouTube without too much fuss. At most, you get an official introduction during a show on TV, but you’d have to watch TV. The retro space theme of First Steps certainly helped, as Marvel could turn the trailer release into an event similar to rocket launches in the early days of space travel.
I did not anticipate the AI controversy that would follow the release of the first Fantastic Four trailer. Fans think the studio used generative AI software to create a poster for the movie, but Marvel is denying it.
My first reaction to seeing the poster below was to think it was created with genAI software. I glanced at it quickly on social media and didn’t even look for the details that would confirm it for me. I just thought the color palette was off.
I’m not just a fan of AI products. I liked the MCU long before genAI was a thing. I know that Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a different universe from the main reality. Also, the events are set in the present time of the MCU. The Fantastic Four are scientists and early space explorers in a reality that’s just beginning to travel to space (or somewhere else). It’s an alternate version of the 1960s.
The audience has to be able to tell the difference even if they’re not following the MCU as closely as I am. The colors, objects, and clothes have to reflect that.
Other MCU fans inspected the poster more carefully than I did. They thought the image was generated with AI after finding some glaring inconsistencies. There’s a hand in the poster with only four fingers, something AI image generators might do. There’s also the face of a person appearing twice. Look closely, and you’ll find her.
While some fans complained on social media that Marvel might have used AI instead of hiring humans to create posters for The Fantastic Four, Marvel told The Wrap that it had not used AI to create the images. It didn’t explain the mistakes others noticed, but I don’t think they need to do it.
I wouldn’t even mind it if Marvel or the artists working on posters relied on AI in some capacity to generate images, just as I don’t mind if AI is used for special effects in movies, whether it’s superhero flicks or something else.
What I don’t appreciate when it comes to AI use in films and TV shows is the alteration of actor performances or voices as it happened with The Brutalist, a movie that got 10 Oscar nominations, including the actors that had their voices changed.
Back to Fantastic Four, the movie premieres on July 25th. We’ll see more trailers, teaser clips, and posters by then. Whether it uses AI to create promotional images for the movie, Marvel should definitely pay attention to the correct number of fingers a human hand has. The internet certainly will.
