“What If…? — An Immersive Story” has been a passion project of mine for a very long time. However, only because so many people at Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive brought an incalculable amount of passion, creativity, and ingenuity in bringing it to life, does it stand as the first Disney+ Original XR Story.
I knew from the beginning we needed authenticity, and flying through the iconic Marvel Studios logo was the way to begin. As a lifelong Marvel fan myself, that logo has been in front of so many of my favorite films. So, I knew it needed to start in that same memorable way.
My core goal as Director was to push the story experience and character moments as far a possible — to give you, the central protagonist, a true sense of presence from your surroundings and to the emotional connection you have with them both in this new form of storytelling.
It was amazing working with the creative teams at Marvel Studios, Disney Studios, and ILM Immersive; without their support this project wouldn’t exist. And, the executives and creative team on the “What If…?” series, who let us play in their sandbox, helped us cross so many bridges to make this a living reality.
PRESENCE & Power
The first challenges we undertook were discussing how to make the characters feel present and part your space, and the bigger story that you were being taken on. The design and animation group at ILM Immersive quickly ideated on how to achieve this goal, utilizing the power of the Vision Pro to create our narrative arc. Leveraging motion capture and pairing a real time engine with proprietary middleware designed at ILM Immersive, the creativity of our animators came alive, and the story unfolds so realistically that you truly believe You Have Been Chosen!
THE POWER of the Infinity Stones
We had so much fun developing a hero power set that fit into the core emotional narrative arc in a fun new way with interactive hand gestures. It was an incredibly challenging endeavor, but so rewarding when fans are able to live out their dream of harnessing the Mystic Arts! Our writers created a seamless story that blended the power of the Infinity Stones and the Mystic Arts, while our amazing group of interactive designers from ILM Immersive created a new set of 10 custom hand gestures that empowered the story.
Characters
Master Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme: our grounded leader, mentor character, and part comic relief. I knew he would need to feel as if, to you the hero, he was the most powerful being in the Multiverse and could appear at any time through the magic of the mystic arts. His variant design and entrance serving as the core hook for the powers you were about to receive…
ENVIRONMENTS
The core tenant of any “What If…?” adventure is exploring the fun variance in character and locations. We were able to build new, and upon, iconic locations from across the Marvel Universe in real time that make you feel as if you’ve stepped directly into the franchise. This was only possible due to ILM Immersive’s amazing VFX team and their new proprietary pipeline. With this, it allowed me to push the story to feel both familiar and new to all fans.
We all see the world through our own lens — stories, experiences, and people open that lens wider, allowing us to see the world through others’ eyes, others’ perspectives.
I wanted to explore that theme from the beginning of our experience, that not everything is as it seems and perspective is, quite simply, new found knowledge.
When we are given power, how does that change our perspective? Or actions?
Each one of us is trying to protect what we hold dear in our own way.
Perspective
Soul World was our setting for this new perspective…and it gave us an amazing canvas for backstory. A place only ever explored deeply in the comics, we wanted to make this world one of possibility and true discovery to set up our third act, where you realize empathy is found with a new perspective.
Choice is the definitive action that creates our own daily narratives. We wanted that to matter in each of our character’s core narrative and also within our third act finale. The choices we make affect not just the timeline are on, but the ones around us as well.
CHoice
Thank you to all my amazing partners on this journey…connected stories is an evolving medium and exciting new playground. It’s is a prism of unlimited possibilities for entertainment and a entirely new generation of creativity.