Iron Man's cinematographer says AI could replace Marvel's effects, but not its stars

Matthew Libatique predicts big studios will use AI to cut visual effects costs but keep real actors. It is a prediction, not inside knowledge, and his test with Darren Aronofsky has not happened yet.

Matthew Libatique, the cinematographer behind Iron Man, Black Swan and A Star Is Born, told Variety on Friday that AI "won't replace cinema." Then he added: "What it could replace is Marvel."

His reasoning was money. Studios that make their movies "for so much money," he said, will use AI in visual effects "to curb some of their costs." The faces are another matter. "I don't think there's going to be a Tilly Norwood Batwoman or Black Widow," he said, naming the AI performer.

This is a prediction rather than inside knowledge. He last shot for Marvel Studios on Iron Man 2 in 2010. The split already exists on paper, though. Disney's Sora deal with OpenAI licenses more than 200 characters for AI video and leaves out talent likenesses and voices.

He has also already shot an AI film. Libatique was director of photography on Goodnight Lamby, a short from Darren Aronofsky's AI studio Primordial Soup made partly with Google's Veo 3, which played Cannes Classics in May. The person directing the model asked him for real light, because placing a lamp in the set was easier than talking the machine into it.

Next comes a test with Aronofsky before their next film, and it has not happened yet. "We're doing a test soon," Libatique said of the plan. He thinks the more you give the system, the better. Aronofsky "wants to see how little you can do." No title, tools or date are public.

Our take: as crews shrink, the people who can both light a set and direct a model have the strongest claim on the work that is left.

Source: Variety interview at Evolution Mallorca, Oct 30, 2026.

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