The upcoming Hawkeye series has quite some star power in Jeremy Renner‘s return as Clint Barton and MCU newcomer Hailee Steinfeld. But, as to be expected, the introduction of Lucky the Pizza Dog may have caught most people’s attention. It’s still uncertain how big his role will be in the story, but given Ajap and Fraction‘s inspiration, My Life as a Weapon, he’ll be a constant throughout. Now, director Rhys Thomas shared some insight into what it was like working with actor dog Jolt to bring the character to life for Disney+.
With Jolt, we had an audition process with our dogs. Jolt did an amazing job. There are very specific things the dog needs to do. She was great. I was definitely dubious, and I had images of a CG dog. Genuinely, I can’t think of a moment we lost time because of Jolt. She was on it.
Rhys Thomas
The big question surrounded the showcase of Jolt’s eye. In the comics, Lucky the Pizza Dog famously lost his left eye after reducing the archer. It was assumed they might avoid this plotline but the first trailer and poster confirmed he is missing it in the series. It made you wonder if it was practical but it seems that they “painstakingly” added it in post-production based on the shot’s references. The reason was simple: so the dog wouldn’t get confused on set with one eye covered.
No, I asked that same question. I was informed she would probably walk around in circles if we obscured her eye. Those wizards — we would shoot a scene with Jolt, and the visual effects team would come in and take all of the lighting references and everything they needed from each camera setup and go in and track this different eye after the fact. It’s a painstaking process where you have to track this thing, frame by frame.
It’s always great to get some insight into how they tackle these projects, especially with how complex it is working with animals on these kinds of sets. Marvel Studios’ production teams have relied on real animals to bring their characters to life, such as multiple cats playing Goose in Captain Marvel. It’s great they continue to do so and hopefully, we’ll get a lot more of the pizza-loving dog in the future.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
