April 22, 2026
If one of the most successful director-producers in Hollywood, responsible for some of your favorite films and TV shows, told you that he relied on one of the most criticized tech products on the market to make his movie magic, would that change your mind about that product? Well, now you have the chance to find out, because that just happened. Jon Favreau, the director of Iron Man (1 and 2), The Jungle Book, The Lion King, The Mandalorian, and the upcoming Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, just gave Apple’s incoming CEO, John Ternus, the best advertisement for the Apple Vision Pro possible.
“We use the Apple Vision Pro on set. I’m making an IMAX movie, and I’m looking at a TV screen. No matter how big your TV screen is, it’s not an IMAX screen,” Favreau said during an interview with Matt Belloni at last week’s CinemaCon event. “We built software so that I could pop on my Apple Vision Pro and be sitting in an IMAX movie theater and see the full aspect ratio when we’re lining a shot up. I could watch that take and see what people will see.”
Favreau’s IMAX use case is a story I’ve been telling since I first got my hands on the Vision Pro back in 2024. I’ve purchased more IMAX tickets than the average moviegoer because it’s such a great experience and nothing comes close to it, except for the Vision Pro. The product is the first wearable computing device that truly makes you feel as though your home has temporarily become an IMAX theater. Of course, because of the device’s intimidating $3,500 price and reports of varying comfort experiences, the tech media has successfully steered some of the public away from the premium device.
But I’ll confess, the Vision Pro is now my favorite way to watch movies, unless I’m specifically going to a traditional movie theater with a friend. Let me put it this way, there have been IMAX movies so visually stunning that I’ve deliberately waited until they became available for rent on the Vision Pro, just so I could completely focus on the cinematic craft. And yes, you can watch a movie together with your partner or friend, remotely or in the same room, via SharePlay or Local SharePlay. However, as with most things in spatial computing, it’s difficult to convey the immersive experience unless someone actually tries the device. That’s why Favreau’s direct IMAX comparison (endorsement, really) is so meaningful. He’s the executive producer of the second-highest-grossing film of all time (Avengers: Endgame, $2.8 billion), so if you don’t trust us Vision Pro devotees, maybe you’ll trust him.
“[Vision Pro is] a piece of technology that existed without us. We did a little bit of a software build on top of it, but we’re leveraging in an industrial capacity, consumer-facing tech,” said Favreau. “There’s so much great consumer-facing tech that could be utilized for filmmaking, in just the planning process. Forget about whether you show in the movie theaters on the big screen. That’s going to help collapse costs and it’s going to also help you get more precise creatively.”
And if, for some reason, Marvel movie makers aren’t your thing, Wicked director Jon M. Chu has also revealed that he used the Vision Pro to help make the first film a $758.7 million hit.
So Hollywood box office masters love it, but what about Apple? Has all the shade thrown at the device steered the company away from it? Well, we know that Ternus is taking over Apple in September. And we know that he led the team that engineered the Vision Pro. We also know that he’s a spatial computing veteran who worked at Virtual Research Systems before he joined Apple in 2001. So no, spatial computing isn’t some flashy gimmick for Ternus. He understands it more intimately than almost anyone at Apple.
“I think we’re still very much in the early innings of spatial computing. We are super excited about it,” Ternus said during a conversation with Tom’s Guide, a week before his CEO promotion was announced. “I mean, the Vision Pro is an extraordinary product. As [Apple’s Greg “Joz” Joswiak] said, it’s like we reached into the future and pulled it into the present. People are continuing to find exciting new use cases for it. There’s a lot of compelling stuff in enterprise, in medicine, and other things, and that’s going to continue to grow. It’s fun. We’re at the beginning of the journey.”
Still, the spatial computing naysayers can only see the headline of the moment and will ask: What does a hardware guy like Ternus know about AI, the most important challenge facing Apple now and in the next ten years? Well, Apple is, as usual, letting others fight it out on the frontier of innovation before it delivers its own bespoke version. In the case of AI, Apple sealed a deal with Google in January that will allow Apple Foundation Models to be based on Google’s Gemini models. Siri sucks? Sure. But Gemini doesn’t. So for now, that multi-year deal takes care of Apple’s AI friction. Ultimately, AI needs hardware to live on, so Apple’s mobile suite of devices fit the bill nicely. And if the long buzzed about rumors are true, one of the most exciting implementations of mobile AI may come via Apple smart glasses.
In the meantime, those of us fortunate enough to afford the pricey Vision Pro in our homes will continue to enjoy movie nerd heaven as Ternus takes the reins at Apple. And we’ll watch as he quietly shepherds Hollywood and mainstream consumers alike toward the spatial computing future many are still so skeptical about, but will eventually come to love. ✍︎
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Cover: Modified scene from ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu’ via Disney/YouTube
