Marvel‘s animated What If…? series has completed many alternate realities in the MCU, from T’Challa becoming Star-Lord to the Avengers assembling in 1602. Its latest project, however, will contemplate perhaps its most expansive question yet – what if you were the hero of the MCU? Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive just unveiled the first-ever Disney+ interactive original, What If…? – An Immersive Story, which places fans in the driver’s seat for an hour-long multiversal adventure to save all of reality with help from The Watcher and the Sorcerer Supreme Wong. It’s set to release on May 30 as a free app for a limited time exclusively on the Apple Vision Pro.
With the announcement came a trailer that teases exactly what audiences, or, in this case, players are in for. The mixed-reality experience will see participants approached by The Watcher to help confront dangerous variants of villains from throughout the Marvel canon, including fan favorites like Thanos and Hela. To stand a chance against such supremely powerful threats, they’ll learn how to cast mystic spells and even harness the Infinity Stones with some help from Wong. Along the way, fans will join forces with mighty allies from throughout the Multiverse and be asked to make reality-defining choices that will shape the course of their story.
What If…? – An Immersive Story is billed as a way to explore the MCU as if it were your own reality, using the computing technology of the Vision Pro to transform the space around players into the iconic locales featured in the superhero franchise. The very fabric of those worlds, then, can be interacted with using the player’s eyes and hands, with everything built to give fans the feeling of bending reality itself. Dave Bushore directed the experience which was penned by David Dong and The Learning Curve co-writer Phil McCarty with music by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning American Fiction and The Marvels composer Laura Karpman.
‘What If…? – An Immersive Story’ Unites Three Talented Disney Teams
For those able to get their hands on a Vision Pro, What If…? – An Immersive Story looks to be an intriguing appetizer in the run-up to the release of What If…? Season 3. There’s no release date yet for the return of the animated series, but it’s set to cap off the anthology trilogy before the MCU starts exploring other animated projects like Marvel Zombies and future seasons of the smash hit X-Men ’97. The interactive experience, in the meantime, was a fun and unique opportunity to combine the minds from ILM Immersive, Marvel Studios, and Disney+ for a project that producer Shereif M. Fattouh can’t wait for fans to try out.
“What If…? – An Immersive Story is the result of what can happen when you bring together the incredible talent at ILM Immersive, Marvel Studios, and Disney+ to push the boundaries of technology in the service of telling our stories in new and exciting ways. This project touches upon the cornerstone of the desire that our studios share to constantly experiment and innovate, and thanks to the capabilities of Apple Vision Pro, we get to place you directly inside a Universe that means so much to us all. I can’t wait for fans to become the hero in this completely new way.”
via Collider