Marvel has denied using AI to create posters for The Fantastic Four: First Steps after fans spotted one image that includes what appears to be a man with just four fingers.
Marketing for The Fantastic Four: First Steps kicked off this week with a teaser for its debut trailer, as well as a series of posters published to social media.
One of these posters, below, raised eyebrows after fans noticed the man holding the largest Fantastic Four flag on the left appears to be missing a finger.
On top of that, fans have called out various aspects of the poster they believe suggest the use of generative AI in its creation, such as duplicated faces, faces not looking in the correct direction, and odd-sized limbs.
However, a Disney/Marvel spokesperson told IGN that AI was not used in the creation of these posters, which suggests something else is going on.
Let’s start with the four-fingered man. Some suggest his missing finger is hiding neatly behind the flag pole, although based on the size of the fingers, the size of the pole, and the angle the missing finger would need to be set at, that seems improbable. Others have suggested this is simply a poorly put together poster, which is perhaps more a critique of someone’s Photoshop skills than it is of AI.
Disney/Marvel has yet to comment directly on the four-fingered man or explain what happened there, which is leaving a space for rampant speculation. Could the four fingers be a simple mistake in the post-production process? Perhaps the missing finger was in the original image but was erased without Photoshopping the rest of the hand to compensate. And repeating faces might not necessarily be generative AI. Some are suggesting it’s the result of a common copy / paste background actor digital trick.
Either way, the debate around The Fantastic Four: First Steps and generative AI this poster has sparked will surely cause even more scrutiny on subsequent assets for the film. While we wait to find out what’s next, we have plenty on The Fantastic Four: First Steps, including features on Galactus and Doctor Doom.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
