Bob Chapek has run Disney for the better part of three years, overseeing the company’s wide-ranging entertainment efforts. Believe it or not, he’s not the only one in the family with a gig at the House of Mouse. Chapek’s son Brian is a top executive at Marvel Studios and now, another family member has joined the mix. As it turns out, Brian’s infant son Cameron was used as the reference for Baby Thor during the opening montage of Thor: Love and Thunder.
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Australia’s Rising Sun Pictures revealed in a new posting that it used the son of a Marvel executive as its reference for the infant Asgardian and IMDb (via The Direct) suggests that role was played by Cameron Chapek.
“One of those challenges involved ‘Baby Thor,’ introduced in an extended flashback montage. The baby is a wholly-digital character, based on the real-life infant of a Marvel executive, created through animation and artificial intelligence,” Rising Sun says on its website.
Rising Sun’s VFX producer Ian Cope adds, “The advantage of this technique over standard ‘deep fake’ methods is that the performance derives from animation enhanced by a learned-library of reference material. The result is a full screen photo-real Baby Thor storming in to battle.”
Earlier in the weekend, Marvel Studios visual development artist Jonay Bacallado shared concept art of the moment, which features Baby Thor sitting in a harness on the chest of his mother Frigga.
Taika Waititi, who directedย Thor: Ragnarok, returns to directย Thor: Love and Thunder. He also co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, and Vin Diesel.
Thor: Love and Thunderย hits Disney+ on September 8th while it’ll be made available on physical media release September 27th.
What’d you thinkย Thor: Love and Thunder? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or byย hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!
