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Marvel Studios is making Captain America: Brave New World's Leader (and his ginormous head) a practical effect with no CGI

Tim Blake Nelson asked that he "feel the weight of the deformation on my head" as he returns to the MCU.

News by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Fri Dec 13 2024

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Good news for everyone who thinks that Marvel Studios movies rely too much on CGI effects when bringing the fantastic to cinematic life: there’s a very important element of next year’s Captain America: Brave New World that was happening live on set during production, and it’s something that almost certainly improve the performances of everyone in the movie. Namely, the Leader’s iconic giant head was a practical effect… and we have actor Tim Blake Nelson to thank for that.

Talking to Empire about his on-set transformation into the misshapen evil genius Samuel Sterns — AKA, the Leader — Nelson said, “I requested that we do what we were going to do, practically, […] which was a huge help, because I liked being able to feel the weight of the deformation on my head, rather than just wearing dots.”

The chance to feel that weight was a long time coming for the actor, who first played Sterns all the way back in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and hasn’t been glimpsed since then. (“I’d begun to think that I had the reverse Midas Touch,” he joked to Empire about the long absence from the MCU.) For those with long memories, you might recall that his explosure to gamma radiation started at the end of that movie, meaning that he’s had more than a decade even in MCU time to mutate and evolve into some kind of over-the-top monster. And, thankfully, one that we’ll get to see created physically, and not just as a CGI afterthought.

Let’s face it; after the reaction that MODOK received in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s very possible that the many effects houses Marvel employs for their movies were happy to escape the judgement of the internet in building an oversized cranium for the villain. We can only anticipate that it’ll be a wonder to behold when we finally see it — after all, there’s not even been a glimpse of it in any of the trailers for the movie yet, so it has to be pretty special.

Captain America: Brave New World will be released in theaters February 14.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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