Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Set a World Record for Prosthetics
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is hitting theaters next week, and it marks the final movie in James Gunn's trilogy that began back in 2014. There's a lot to look forward to in the film ranging from new cast members to some franchise firsts. In fact, the movie already has a promising Rotten Tomatoes score. The film is currently up on the review site with an 80% critic score after 87 reviews. ComicBook.com's Patrick Cavanaugh gave the movie a 4 out of 5 and called it "cathartic" and "emotional." In addition to being a highly-anticipated Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is also a world record breaker.
According to Deadline, the film set the record for the most makeup appliances used in a single film with more than 23,000 prosthetics used across more than 1,000 actors. For comparison, there were 1,200 prosthetics used in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Before Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 beat the record, it was held by The Grinch for over 20 years.
"We always knew that it was going to be a lot because when you're reading the script, and you're designing the characters you're kind of like, 'This could be a big movie...' I don't think any of us truly understood the sheer volume of work that was done until we were there," Legacy FX co-founder Lindsay MacGowan told Deadline.
"Lots of charts," makeup department head Alexei Dmitriew said with a laugh when asked how they pulled it off. MacGowan added, "It starts off with that design. So we had a huge team of designers at Legacy to come up with the ideas for the new characters that are in the movie... once we've designed them, then we sculpt them, and then we break them down. Alexei would be there and we'd go through the appliances [to discuss], 'How are we going to apply this on the day?' And kind of go from there. So once we've made charts for every single thing that we're doing, we then make it and then we pass it off to Alexei and [hair department head] Cassie [Russek] for their team to apply it on the day."
"We put this huge catalog together as well as the new stuff," Dmitriew shared. "James [Gunn] really is great about knowing what he wants and where he wants it. So he was able to pick, 'I want this, I want that,' and then we break it down to how big the scene is and how many numbers we need."
"We shot this movie and like the absolute heart of Omicron [variant of the coronavirus]. So to say 'pivot' is like to say the least," Russek continued. "We had – I can't even imagine – maybe 20 extra looks a day for just in case [someone] had COVID and who we would have to replace. We were pivoting daily. And you know what? We were so prepared. We felt really good about it every day. If somebody wasn't going to be in, we were like, 'We got it. We're ready.'"
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to be released on May 5th.