• The film Fantastic Four: First Steps is out in July
  • Fans noticed inconsistencies on the poster
  • Marvel has since clarified it wasn’t AI-generated
The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces us to Marvel's First Family.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces us to Marvel’s First Family. Credit: Disney/Marvel

The new poster for the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps film went viral for all the wrong reasons this week.

Fans began wondering if Marvel had generated the poster using to AI, pointing to some strange inconsistences in the design.

Read more: Who’s in The Fantastic Four: First Steps Cast?

The poster depicts a crowd waving flags and holding posters with the tagline ‘Prepare 4 launch’. Some fans noticed that two women had the same face and some people had four fingers instead of five. Another person was holding a sig that read ‘We 4 U’.

Consequently, plenty of social media users raised their eyebrows. However, a Marvel spokesperson has confirmed to TheWrap that the studio didn’t use AI to create the poster.

Fantastic Four: First Steps is coming to theaters on July 25.

“The industry is over”

Before Marvel put their doubts to bed, fans were quick to poke fun at the poster, or express more serious concerns about the use of AI in film.

Read more: All we know about The Fantastic Four: First Steps

One claimed that “the industry is over”, while another joked: “i think its so funny that the people in those fantastic four posters have no idea how to use a camera.”

Someone else said: “Guys!! Don’t you get it? The reason they all have 4 fingers is because it’s the Fantastic FOUR! Totally not because they used generative AI for most of this poster! No way!”

After Marvel confirmed that no AI was used, another social media user posed an important question. “Fantastic Four poster stuff has left me wandering do we not have an accurate identifier for AI art? It’s been years and we’re still eyeballing it?” they wrote.

How much has AI been used in the film industry?

AI remains a controversial subject in the world of film. Concerns grew recently following news that a couple of films in contention for Oscars have used it.

One of these is The Brutalist, which used AI to make the pronunciation of Hungarian words in a scene where Adrien Brody’s character reads a letter sound more authentic.

The already controversial Emilia Pérez also used the same AI technology, Respeecher, for a similar purpose. Karla Sofía Gascón’s singing voice was blended with that of another singer using AI so that her character could hit certain notes that weren’t in her register.

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