Kumail Nanjiani Says Marvel Barely Used Green Screen for Eternals Special Effects

According to Kumail Nanjiani, who plays Kingo in the upcoming Marvel Studios movie Eternals, the film — due out in November — primarily used practical special effects, and relied relatively little on green screen technology. If true, that is a huge change from Marvel’s last release, Avengers: Endgame, where behind-the-scenes photos have shown massive swaths of the picture to be green screen and motion capture. While fans often clamor for practical effects, something that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn was recenly talking about on social media, the calculus as to what can work as practical versus digital effects is sometimes a complicated one.

Set photos from Eternals have showed off relatively few green screen shots, though, suggesting perhaps that much of the movie will use natural environments to tell the story of the ancient, cosmic beings. Little is known about the film yet, but given that the characters have been living in secret on Earth for centuries, it could give plenty of opportunities to use sets a lot less involved than the space-scapes needed for movies like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

“It looks beautiful and it’s all mostly practical,” Nanjiani said during a recent interview. “Like, we didn’t do very much green screen at all.”

Per the official synopsis, Marvel Studios’ The Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, The Deviants,” the synopsis explains. The outstanding ensemble cast include Richard Madden as the all-powerful Ikaris, Gemma Chan as humankind-loving Sersi, Kumail Nanjiani as the cosmic-powered Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as the super-fast Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as the intelligent inventor Phastos, Salma Hayek as the wise and spiritual leader Ajak, Lia McHugh as the eternally young, old-coul Sprite, Don Lee as the powerful Gilgamesh, Barry Keoghan as the aloof longer Druig, and Angelina Jolie as the fierce warrior Thena. Kit Harrington was cast as Dane Whitman.”

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.