The internet is frequently filled with “leaked” videos and images from some of the biggest upcoming movies. Thanks to the advancement in AI it can sometimes be hard to know what to believe when such images appear on various social media accounts, always under the guise of being shared by anonymous “sources.” On Sunday, a new Avengers: Doomsday image very quickly became one of the most debated pictures on the internet, as it claimed to give Marvel fans their first look at Ian McKellen’s return to the franchise as Magneto, as well as Robert Downey Jr.’s unmasked Doctor Doom. But does it really do what it said in the X caption?
Fans immediately began arguing about the legitimacy of the image, which featured several smaller pictures that appeared to show some official character posters and shots taken of Downey Jr., McKellan, James Marsden, and Letitia Wright in the make-up chair getting ready for filming. While at a quick glance it was possible to believe that this could be the case, there is certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that this is one of many recent attempts to deceive fans through the use of advanced AI images.
Is This ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Leak Fake or Genuine?
Although it is easy to say that the camera doesn’t lie, that stopped being the case a long time ago. Recent leaps forward in the capabilities of AI have only made it harder to believe what our eyes tell us, and that is certainly true anytime a new “leak” arrives online. A couple of months ago, many fans believed that they had been given a first look at Jason Momoa’s Lobo on the set of Supergirl, only to discover the images were AI. The same happened with reported images of Marsden and McKellen together on the Doomsday surfacing last month, which very quickly were debunked as AI.
So what about this latest “leak” from the highly anticipated Marvel movie? It is just about possible to get past the vacant, slightly off-camera stares of the actors in the images, or the fact that the supposed scars of Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom seem to suggest he has been hit in the face with Thor’s Stormbreaker to the point it has left a gouged line from forehead to chin – making special note that it also runs perfectly down his nose. However, the images of Marsden in his make-up chair make it clear that someone forgot that photos taken in the same place usually have the same background.
Although the clever images show different images of a bloodied Marsden, both from the front and from the side, whatever matches in terms of the actor is undone by background discrepancies. Bottles are facing different directions, one image is strangely blurred, and one shot shows a mirror that is clearly not in a very similar image.
The original poster of the image claimed that they did not know anything about the images being legitimate or not, as they were “just sent them.” This does not exactly add much weight to this collection making some pretty big reveals about the upcoming movie, and although some have claimed to have “tested” the image for AI content and found none – probably by asking AI if it created the montage and expecting it to confess – it seems like it would be more sensible to err on the side of caution at this point. Official looks at all the returning characters, and the full reveal of Downey Jr.’s Doom, will arrive in good time, so why spoil that by believing in dubious “leaks” from anonymous sources?