It’s been a wild time since the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe trailer was released, and aside from an enthusiastic reception for the film itself (GALACTUS YAY!!), the movie posters have drawn ire from many online. If you haven’t kept up, Marvel was accused of using generative AI for the promotional posters and subsequently denied it. Even taking Marvel’s word, the outrage isn’t baseless, and here’s why.
The Fantastic Four Movie Poster
The images above come from the official Marvel Studios and Fantastic Four Instagram accounts, and as many have pointed out, there are odd “choices” in the execution of the images. From gnarly hands to odd “posing” (what is that lady doing with that TLR camera?), many of the decisions that made the cut seem unnatural at best. Here at ThePhoblographer, we’ve got questions about this being a fully human-made promotional piece. We, too, have debated the overall look and feel of the posters and many of the same AI red flags. One of the qualitative issues with this poster set is that the poses/people are supposed to give a sense of being “inspired” or “hopeful” but instead feel flat and sterile – as if the humanity of the images were washed away.
Not Marvel’s First AI Debacle
This is far from Marvel’s first rodeo when it comes to drawing the anger of creatives for their use of generative AI. Most recently, the 2023 Secret Invasion television series got blasted for using generative AI in its title sequences – one that was immediately panned by animators and visual effects artists. As expected, Redditors have taken offense to the Marvel Studio’s alleged use of AI for these posters – saying, “Just f***ing pay real people to model shoot and produce an actual promotional shoot. Just why???”
Ultimately, it comes down to a very real threat of the loss of creative jobs when huge companies like Disney/Marvel Studios elect to pay for speed over talent. When the biggest studios in the world opt for, at worst, replacing human talent with AI, and at best, poorly edited, rushed promotional materials, it sends the message that professional artists are a commodity that can be replaced on a whim.
Closing Thoughts
For those of you who are unfamiliar or unbothered by whatever Disney/Marvel does, understand that this is a huge upcoming release for the studio. After a disappointing start (both content-wise and financially) to their Phase Five schedule, this year’s releases will determine if the gamble on big blockbusters tied to comic book properties continues to be a good one. The fact that these kinds of releases largely are dependent on the human, emotional connections viewers have with not only the movies themselves but also the trailers and posters leading up to their release, it’s a concern that the studios would rather remove those connections and replace them with soulless, sanitized imagery. As someone who grew up reading comics and loved the colorful and imaginative worlds they took me, it’s sad to see that the future of some of my most beloved childhood characters and stories may one day be replaced by bland content created by prompt engineers.