Marvel clarifies if AI was used in Fantastic Four poster after social media criticism

Marvel has denied using artificial intelligence to make teaser posters for its forthcoming film The Fantastic Four: First Steps after fans pointed out inconsistencies on social media.

The first teaser trailer for the film released on Tuesday, to mostly positive reactions. But fans soon started to point out issues with the promotional posters released alongside, including people with four fingers and the same woman’s face appearing twice.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the heroic quartet, with British actor Ralph Ineson as the villain Galactus and Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer.

After the criticism for social media, a spokesperson for Marvel Studios told IndieWire no AI was used for the poster. “AI was not used in the creation of these posters,” the spokesperson said, providing no further information.

Disney’s Marvel Studios acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four in 2019 when the company merged with Fox.

The original Fantastic Four comic books follow a group of scientists who develop superhero qualities after getting exposed to a mysterious cosmic storm.

The controversy comes after revelations that Oscar frontrunner The Brutalist used AI to enhance its dialogue.

The film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, said they used the Respeecher voice cloning software to make Hungarian dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones sound more authentic.

Brody and Jones were coached to speak the language properly, he said, “and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference”.

Jancsó said the AI software enabled them to blend his own speech with the performances of the actors.

Director Brady Corbet defended the film saying: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed.

“This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to be released on 25 July 2025.