Marvel Studios is partnering with ILM on a trip inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are about to get a chance to visit it in a way they never expected, with Marvel Studios announcing a partnership with ILM Immersive to create What If…? – An Immersive Story — a new project for Apple Vision Pro that will allow users to literally bring the MCU to the real world… and vice versa.

“What If…? the animated series as well as the comic book has always been about looking over the horizon into realities that have yet to be conceived,” executive producer Brad Winderbaum explained in a statement about the project. “What If…? – An Immersive Story takes this one step further and actually allows you to visit these strange new worlds, not as a Watcher but as an actual participant. The creative work on this project is nothing less than stellar and we could not be more excited for fans to interact firsthand with some of their favorite Marvel heroes.” 

“As a kid, my favorite stories were about worlds beyond my own, advanced technologies, and heroes traveling across space and time. What If…? – An Immersive Story is the next evolution in how we tell our stories, where fans across generations can experience them and live out the adventure alongside their favorite heroes,” added director and executive producer Dave Bushore. “This experience kicks the door open to the Marvel Universe, and it’s a glimpse of what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

Although details about what What If…? — An Immersive Story actually will is remain under wraps for now, Marvel and ILM promise that it will “cross between augmented and virtual reality,” and allow users to “step into breathtaking environments that place them in new and iconic MCU locations, and feel completely immersed with stunning visuals and spatial audio.”

We can only hope that Jeffrey Wright’s Watcher will accompany users on the journey. Or, maybe even better, Lawrence Fishburne’s Beyonder from Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur…!

This isn’t the first time Marvel has experimented with VR — Marvel and ILM had previously collaborated on Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Damage Control in 2019, and a year later, Iron Man VR was released for PlayStation VR.

Marvel promises more information about What If…? — An Immersive Story will be released soon. For now, fans had better start saving up for that Apple Vision Pro set up…

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights: Disney CEO Bob Iger is promising Deadpool & Wolverine will be MCU's biggest movie "in a long time", how Marvel Studios is now working "much more closely" to sell Marvel comics, where Marvel sees its future audience (and it's not at Marvel, yet!), Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak, and the biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows.