There’s been a lot of talk surrounding the introduction of the Illuminati in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Many were shocked when it was revealed that Black Bolt’s costume was entirely made through VFX, which was quite impressive. Of course, the internet has made its own theories in regards to how it came together, but luckily in an interview with Comic Book Movies, costume designer Graham Churchyard has offered some insight into what exactly happened behind the scenes.
While many believed that the current releases were safe from COVID, it turn sout that their initial plans for the Illuminati weren’t as easy to bring to life as initially expected. Churchyard reveals that many couldn’t travel due to COVID, and there was also an issue of hopes on who they might be able to include. By the time they could finally, likely also contractually speaking, there wasn’t much time left.
Yeah, I feel sorry for Janek Sirrs that he had to shoehorn those in at the last moment. We had designs for other characters, and then we didn’t have casting and there were travel bans. When we were shooting the Illuminati in London, actors like Sir Patrick couldn’t come to London because of travel. Richie Palmer and everyone had a big wish list of like who was going to be in the Illuminati. When it came down to those two characters being settled on, it was then even too late to make something locally in Los Angeles. Just way too late and too close.
Graham Churchyard
He also shared his thoughts with the VFX teams that had to work on everything at the last second but highlighted how they tried their best to help them as best as they could through the costume design, especially the challenge with Wanda flying around Kamar Taj.
It was probably too close for comfort for visual effects to really do that because up to that point, everything else had been physically there. All of Wanda when she’s flying around Kamar Taj on a very elaborate wire rig that’s like a spider that goes six ways that can pull you in different directions. Where possible, pretty much everything is physical in the costumes unless they say, ‘Hey, the skirt is getting in the way of the rig.’ It just gives visual effects one less thing to do out of the million things that they have to do in to bring these characters and enhance them in the way you see them.
Graham Churchyard
Lastly, they revealed that they had to build Captain Marvel’s costume, played by Lashana Lynch in this alternative universe, from scratch. So, they didn’t have much time but confirmed that a lot was cut throughout the process.
Lashana Lynch as Captain Marvel…we built that entirely from scratch. We start with a 3D scan in a photogrammetry booth, and then we work out a form of the person and start building the costume on top of that and sculpt things in the computer. We’re then printing those out, moulding them, and then get to the point where we say, ‘Let’s bring the actor in for a fitting’ and fine-tune it until you get something like that. I was really happy with Lashana’s costume. The fit and performance, and she was able to fight. All I’m saying is a lot was cut and it’s a very quick end for the Illuminati. We shot a tonne more, but maybe it’ll be on the Blu-ray.
Graham Curchyard
There is hope that we’ll get a view behind the scenes from the production in the blu-ray extras, especially some concept art teasing who may have almost joined the Illuminati. Costume design having to throw together something as fast as they could is quite respectable and everyone involved managed to give us a great film even with all these COVID hurdles along the way.
Source: Comic Book Movie
