Peacemaker VFX Supervisors Detail Their Favorite Eagly Scenes

If Eagly, Peacemaker’s pet American bald eagle sidekick, was one of your favorite things about James Gunn’s Peacemaker series on HBO Max, you aren’t alone. The bird is a fan favorite, and that includes the people who helped bring Eagly to “life”. Despite looking like a real bird, Eagly is entirely a creation of Wētā FX who crafted the character with great detail and now, VFX supervisors Mark Gee and Guy Williams are breaking down their favorite Eagly moments in the series — and sharing a look at how one of them came together.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, we asked Gee and Williams what their favorite thing they did working on Peacemaker was and, for both of them, it was Eagly with Gee in particular talking about how they made the scene with Eagly riding in Peacemaker’s car so realistic.

“For me, it’s definitely Eagly. That’s where I spent most of my time, on Eagly. From the day one of the development of how the hell we’re going to do this to actually pulling it off and just going, ‘wow, he looks amazing,’” Gee said. “And the response we’re getting from James and then the general public at the end of it. So, there were just so many of those little pockets of the Eagly shots in there that I really loved. The dog out the window Eagly shot was one of my favorites. And I know how much effort everyone went to to pull that shot off, from even looking up Google maps to find the place where they shot it on the street so we could match the lighting poles exactly on the street. To match that lighting on Eagly, just so he was seamless in that car. And so that was definitely, even down to the thug walk that we got, the personality that we built in Eagly, that was what I loved most about this show.”

In the photos above, you can see the progression of work on that dog-out-the-window moment for Eagly, including some fascinating work on the feathers, but it wasn’t the only favorite among those who worked on the series. Williams shared that for him, it was the scene on the piano bench, in part because of how it showcased the character’s personality.

“My favorite shot was Vigilante’s sitting on the piano bench in the headquarters and he’s like ‘which one is Eagly?’ He’s making a fool of himself,” Williams said. “And we were just supposed to put Eagly in the next shot, but the animators came up with this thing where Eagly didn’t look at Vigilante. He kind of looked away and started stepping to the edge, like he didn’t want to be a part of that conversation. And it was just, of course that’s the joke we have to tell in this shot.”

The first season of Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max.