To be fair, Warner Bros. has clarified that creative decision-making will still be in humans’ hands, and the AI will only be in charge of processing large amounts of audience data to predict which films will succeed based on budgets and talent. Nevertheless, the possibility that the AI would miss out on a franchise that grossed almost $23 billion worldwide should give executives pause.
The decision to begin the MCU came with serious financial and creative risk that an AI might not be able to calculate. The first installment of the Iron Man franchise starred an uninsurable actor (Robert Downey Jr) in a genre that, despite the early successes of the X-Men films, couldn’t be expected to take off the way it did. Considering both casting and genre, in 2008 the MCU's existence and Iron Man's success was unpredictable and not a guaranteed investment.
Of course, casting Robert Downey Jr. looks like a no-brainer in hindsight, with one of the considered for the role of Iron Man, and pre-2008, their resumes might have been better fits for the comic book genre.
By 2008, the genre had its hits and misses. Marvel’s X-Men, Blade, and Sam Raimi’s The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton, the first film to include a cross-movie post-credits scene, after Ang Lee’s Hulk had disappointed five years earlier, would seem unwise.
AI is an emerging science, and for the untrained eye, AI’s mistakes often draw more attention than its successes; after all, when an iPhone’s predictive text offers a ludicrous suggestion, isn’t it more noticeable than all the times it suggests the right word? But in the complex world of creativity, talent, and art, human ingenuity and courage can pay off: director Jon Favreau and producer Kevin Feige inherently knew Downey Jr was the best casting for Tony Stark, loved the material, and believed in the project. Data-driven decisions may be the wave of the future, and Warner Bros. may be at the forefront, but if the past is any indication, there’s value in understanding that some things, like the MCU, just feel right.
