(Spoiler alert: Seriously, DO NOT READ on if you haven’t seen “Avengers: Infinity War.”)
“Avengers: Infinity War” climaxes with a snap, and a white flash, as Thanos finally achieves his goal of eliminating half of all life in the universe. It’s quickly become an iconic moment, but the visual effects team behind the film originally wanted to include a deep cut Marvel Comics Easter egg that would have tied the scene back to an equally iconic moment in the source material.
Kelly Port, VFX Supervisor at Digital Domain, told TheWrap the team wanted to insert a graphic of Thanos’ finger-snap as it played out in the 1991 Marvel miniseries “Infinity Gauntlet,” on which “Infinity War” is loosely based. Meaning that in the moment Thanos snapped his fingers together, the word “snap!” would’ve actually appeared on movie screens for a split second.
“As a fun aside, we explored the idea of lifting the actual graphic from the frame of the comic showing the snap, the little yellow action triangles for a single frame of the moment of the snap. They appreciated the idea but didn’t ultimately go for it.”
Easter egg aside, Port told TheWrap the creating actual scene went pretty smoothly.
“Weirdly enough, you would think this particular shot… this particular critical moment, would have a tremendous amount of pressure and back and forth to get it just right, but it actually went pretty smoothly,” he said. “I asked the compositor on this particular shot how it felt to be working on one of the most important shots in Marvel history. A shot representing the culmination of ten years of story. No pressure!”
20-plus people worked on building Thanos to get him just right, given the complexity and the amount of time Thanos is on screen in “Infinity War.”
“You saw how many close-ups and subtle dramatic and heavy moments Thanos went through that really needed to come across,” said Port. “We spent the extra time and attention on shots like that — Our animation and modeling teams would go in and refine these performances with shot by shot, frame by frame attention.“
He added, “The essence of the original Thanos design stayed true to comics and previous films, but of course, we had to improve the photorealistic nature of the character. We were better able to address the realism as technology has improved and better lighting and rendering solutions have become available. But just as important, if not critical, was that we had the ability to capture the subtle details of Brolin’s performance and make sure they come through on Thanos. So many people say that they have sympathy with him or at least an understanding of his motivation. He’s a complex character — that’s all in the writing and Brolin’s performance, so it was essential to get it right given the amount of screen time had. This had to work in order for the movie to work.“
With new technology that’s become available and the improvement of light in motion capture, Port said he hasn’t done a project like this before.
“We started with an initial Thanos proof-of-concept test a few months before the live-action shooting began. We began developing and refining the character for the film which probably took another year. Even as we were finishing shots, we would still be refining, depending on the requirements of a specific shot or sequence,” he explained. “There were little tweaks here and there with costumes, the gauntlet, muscle simulations and skeletal considerations, and how the muscles move over his unique bone structure. All in, this probably took us two years.”
He added, “The techniques Digital Domain used for the facial capture have not been used before. We employed machine learning algorithms in several steps of the process, in addition to a lot of blood sweat and tears, but the end result was that we were able to capture an incredible amount of Brolin’s subtle performance and apply it to Thanos.”
Given the positive reaction of Thanos’ appearance, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the same VFX team worked on the uber-villain for “Avengers 4,” set for release next summer. But nothing has been set in stone.
“It would be an honor, obviously,” Port said.
Marvel did not immediately reply to TheWrap’s request for comment.
22 Marvel Villains Ranked, From Forgettable to Killmonger (Photos)
Marvel has a villain problem. Or until incredibly recently – they HAD a villain problem. A decade’s worth of the most bankable films and memorable heroes Hollywood has to offer, yet they struggled in being able to pit the Avengers against a scene-chewing super villain on par with the Joker, Bane, Doc Ock or Magneto. And no amount of asterisks is going to make those last two part of the MCU. Given that the villains are almost never the best part of a Marvel film, we decided to look back at which ones surprisingly worked, and which ones certainly did not.
(Please note: We’ve included the major villains in this roundup, so no Laufey, Mandarin, Dormammu or Tony Stark circa “Civil War")
Marvel
22. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) - "Iron Man 2"
What a mumbling mess. Iron Man has taken down the Hulk, but somehow he struggles with a guy with some extension cord and a pet bird?
Marvel
21. Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) - "Thor: The Dark World"
Far be it from an elf to be considered evil, this pale skinned dude is known for his bad dialogue and even worse ponytail.
Marvel
20. Emil Blonsky/The Abomination (Tim Roth) - "The Incredible Hulk"
General Ross is technically the one calling the shots, but Blonsky is the real baddie in “The Incredible Hulk.” Tim Roth plays him with some sweaty, crazy-eyed gusto, but it’s boilerplate gunplay followed by a transformation to another CGI monster who just bashes everything in sight.
Marvel
19. Ronan (Lee Pace) - "Guardians of the Galaxy"
For a movie as light and breezy as “Guardians of the Galaxy,” it’s a shame its villain is so overly ponderous and heavy handed. Lee Pace’s roaring, boisterous performance looking like an Egyptian God belongs in a different movie entirely.
Marvel
18. Darren Cross/Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) - "Ant-Man"
Another scorned CEO driven to evil by copying another hero’s high-tech super suit, Darren Cross is Obadiah Stane with less malevolence. Thankfully, Corey Stoll is almost as likeable as Paul Rudd.
Marvel
17. Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) - "Doctor Strange"
I’m struck by how little Kaecilius is even in “Doctor Strange.” You could make a case that he’s even the second villain behind the giant dimensional face thing Dormammu. Mads Mikkelsen is a bona-fide Bond villain, and yet his bedazzled fish eyes seem to be doing all the work here.
Marvel
16. Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) - "Iron Man 2"
In another universe, Sam Rockwell might’ve made a great Tony Stark, and he originally auditioned for the part. But as another fast-talking salesman and munitions dealer, he makes a compelling Tony Stark-wannabe and rival, even if he’s more greedy than evil.
Marvel
15. Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) - "Iron Man 3"
Another Tony Stark copycat, Aldrich Killian is evil because he puts the moves on Pepper Potts and is quite literally a firebrand. Though the subplot, backstory that Stark “created” Killian by snubbing him on top of a rooftop is kind of lame.
Marvel
14. Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) - "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
I don’t totally buy that the MCU suddenly turned into “All the President’s Men” just by virtue of casting Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce. He certainly lends "Winter Soldier" gravitas, and he’s a charismatic villain because he’s Redford, but no one’s jumping to call this one of his best performances. If anything, Redford set a bad precedent for superhero movies in having guys in spandex sitting around boardrooms and courthouses debating moral politics.
Marvel
13. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) - "Ant-Man and the Wasp"
Only the second female villain in Marvel history behind Cate Blanchett, Hannah John-Kamen makes the gender-flipped Ghost sympathetic and complex in a way that’s rare in the MCU. In fact, you could put quotation marks around “villain” and point to Sonny Burch as the real baddie of “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” But John-Kamen plays Ghost as always on the verge of becoming fully evil, flirting with kidnapping Scott’s daughter and wholly willing to risk Janet’s life to save her own. She’s good at heart, but you get the sense she could flip without the right guidance from Dr. Bill Foster.
Marvel
11. Ego (Kurt Russell) - "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2"
He starts benevolent and visionary, but Ego spreads his seed across the galaxy, then harvests his children in a hunt for the perfect DNA cocktail of his genes and even gives his human wife a tumor. And he can transform into David Hasselhoff on a whim. Pretty evil dude.
Marvel
10. Ultron (James Spader) - "Avengers: Age of Ultron"
Ultron may be an android, but as voiced by James Spader in his signature quick, dry, and condescending tone, he has more personality and depth than a lot of the villains on this list. He taunts Tony Stark by constantly playing “I Got No Strings on Me” and gives the illusion of grand themes as he goes on about AI and the folly of man. Though I never understood why an unstoppable being that could exist in the Internet would make a physical manifestation of himself that could be so easily defeated.
Every villain Iron Man has faced is a result of someone stealing and manipulating Tony Stark’s tech. No one did that better or more convincingly than Obadiah Stane, who paid off terrorists to kidnap Stark but had a plausible motive as a ruthless corporate suit in doing so. The final battle between Iron Man and Iron Monger is much better than Iron Man fighting swarms of drones. And The Dude himself brings a menacing calm when he’s face to face with Pepper Potts.
Marvel
8. Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) - "Captain America: The First Avenger"
You can’t go wrong with a raging, deformed, mutant Nazi as your villain. Hugo Weaving brings a cartoonish amount of fuming mad energy to the role, even if he's far from Cap's most formidable foe.
Marvel
7. Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) - "Captain America: Civil War"
For a guy with no discernible powers or even a cool costume, Daniel Bruhl goes full Bond villain in his manipulative, mastermind scare tactics. As is the case with Michael Keaton’s Vulture, he’s an ordinary person who has lost so much that you even feel sorry for him as he bares his soul to T’Challa.
We know he was always good at heart, but Bucky Barnes really looks the part as a great Marvel baddie. He’s mysterious and has an intense death stare, and his punishing, visceral fight scenes with Cap cowering behind his shield are among the most realistic Marvel has staged.
In terms of sheer power, he should be at the top of this list. And Josh Brolin's gruff, solemn tone makes him convincingly unstoppable. But as good as the other villains on this list are, none have become a meme in the same way Thanos has, and for that, he'll go down as an all-time great movie villain.
Marvel
4. Hela (Cate Blanchett) - "Thor: Ragnarok"
Come on Cate Blanchett, if you’re going to be a super-villain, you can’t just show up in what you would’ve already worn to Cannes -- goth antlers, emerald one-piece and all. In a movie not as goofy and fun as Taika Waititi’s, Hela might make for a truly spectacular villain, but she earns points on her character design alone.
Marvel
3. Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) - "Spider-Man: Homecoming"
Just when you thought Michael Keaton was done making superhero movies, he joins the “Spider-Man” reboot and puts together this scarily genuine performance of a working class warrior scorned and forgotten by the Avengers heroics. Thor could manhandle him, but against a teen Spidey, its Vulture’s modest proportions of evil and vengeful values that make him feel real.
Sony
2. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) - "The Avengers," "Thor"
I don’t have a fangirl-ish affinity for Tom Hiddleston’s Loki like most people do, but his playful and mischievous good guy/bad guy routine with Thor and the other Avengers have made him a Marvel mainstay for a reason.
Marvel
1. Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) - "Black Panther"
As played by Michael B. Jordan with a menacing swagger, Killmonger has fashion sense, sexuality, confidence, and he makes you believe he’s RIGHT. His tragic backstory and honest Oakland upbringing make him empathetic, but it’s his blackness that speaks volumes. The scene where he’s introduced, with Killmonger stealing an ancient hatchet and confronting the white clerk in the museum, might be Marvel’s finest moment period, and is by far the best villain Marvel has had to offer.
Marvel
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Where does “Ant-Man and the Wasp” baddie Ghost rank?
Marvel has a villain problem. Or until incredibly recently – they HAD a villain problem. A decade’s worth of the most bankable films and memorable heroes Hollywood has to offer, yet they struggled in being able to pit the Avengers against a scene-chewing super villain on par with the Joker, Bane, Doc Ock or Magneto. And no amount of asterisks is going to make those last two part of the MCU. Given that the villains are almost never the best part of a Marvel film, we decided to look back at which ones surprisingly worked, and which ones certainly did not.
(Please note: We’ve included the major villains in this roundup, so no Laufey, Mandarin, Dormammu or Tony Stark circa “Civil War")
Marvel
Marvel
