Marvel’s ‘What If…?’ Immersive Vision Pro Experience Coming May 30

The upcoming Disney+ What If…? immersive Vision Pro experience we shared earlier this month now has an official trailer and a release date, with Disney announcing that its first-ever interactive original story will come to Apple’s spatial computing headset on May 30.

Based on the popular comic book series of the same name, What If…? – An Immersive Story will take you into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in an hour-long experience that will combine both augmented and virtual reality to help you live out your superhero fantasy, fighting multiversal villains who have broken free and are wreaking havoc across time, space, and reality.

While the original announcement certainly piqued our interest, it was hard to nail down precisely what the new immersive app experience would offer. Apple has already released several immersive video experiences that put you in the middle of the action as a passive observer, but the good news is that What If…? will be a much more interactive experience.

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. 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.Brad Winderbaum, executive producer

The trailer shows what appears to be the introduction of the experience, which begins with the Watcher introducing himself and explaining that our world is facing an unprecedented threat and you, the player, have been chosen to help determine the fate of all existence. Master Wong then appears to guide you on your journey to “learn the mystic arts” and “harness the power of the Infinity Stones.

Fans will step into breathtaking environments that place them in new and iconic MCU locations, and feel completely immersed with stunning visuals and spatial audio. Together, these features will remind fans that time, space, and reality are more than a linear path.The Walt Disney Company

While there have already been some exciting apps for the Vision Pro, What If…? – An Immersive Story seems poised to raise the bar, taking Apple’s spatial computing headset to a whole new level. Of course, Disney was one of Apple’s launch partners when it first unveiled the headset nearly a year ago, so it’s had more time to work on groundbreaking interactive experiences than most other developers, and it seems apps like What If…? have been in the concept stages since before most of us knew anything specific about Apple’s headset.

Last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger took the stage at the June 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) to talk about how the Vision Pro would allow his company to “bring Disney to our fans in ways that we thought were previously impossible,” with “deeply personal experiences that bring our fans closer to the characters they love.” That’s precisely what the company is doing with What If…? and hopefully, it will inspire other developers to follow suit and push the limits of the Vision Pro.

What If…? – An Immersive Story will be available on the Vision Pro App Store on May 30. While there’s no word on the price tag that will eventually be attached to it, it will initially be free for a limited time, although of course you’ll still need one of Apple’s $3,500 headsets to experience it.