Ms. Marvel VFX Supervisor Explains the Challenges of Being Original in the MCU

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now in its She-Hulk: Attorney at Law era on Disney+, the ripple effects following Ms. Marvel are still heading towards the shores. That’s because not only is Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan starring in next year’s The Marvels alongside Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau, but she also introduced the mutant gene to the MCU. Beyond the bigger picture storyline implications of the six-episode streaming series, Ms. Marvel also pushed the boundaries in its production. The show embraced its coming of age nature with a modern twist regarding title cards while simultaneously creating a crystalized spectacle whenever Kamala used her powers.

Another spectacle came during Episode 5 when a gateway from Earth to the home of the Clandestines, known as the Veil, began to take form. Speaking with ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley, Ms. Marvel visual effects supervisor Kevin Yuille of FuseFX recounted the process of bringing the Veil to life.

“That was our big effect sequence. It was a pretty short turnaround. It was one of those that we had joined late. Other vendors had been working on that sequence to look for it,” Yuille explained. “We saw all the artwork and the concept stuff, but the show itself, schedules shift and change and some of the vendors couldn’t stick around because of the shifting schedule, so we had to pick up some of the work.”

Beyond the extra work, Yuille’s team faced the obstacle of making this gateway look other-worldly.

“It was a challenge. It was a huge challenge because it was like, what is it? What does light look like that’s pouring through a rift and early stuff?” Yuille continued. “It looked more like a fire, very Pyro-like, and that’s something they did not want. They didn’t want anything kind of terrestrial or of this world that someone could look at like, ‘Oh, that just looked like fire, that’s colored or shifting colors.’ That was a lot of back and forth with Marvel to figure out what that was. And then it was just like crunch time.”

While Yuille’s team entered the project later into the process, well after Ms. Marvel’s powers were changed away from a stretchiness, he gave insight on the challenges any Marvel creators face when attempting to make something completely unique.

“It’s funny [because] on other shows I’ve been on, you get really excited about a character or whatever that’s got this unique power and you’re dev-ing it, you’re looking at it and then someone on the screen are like, ‘Oh, that looks just like this other movie,’ and it’s like, ‘Oh, really?’ And then you look at it, you’re like, ‘Ugh.’ “It’s so hard to be original, even though you think in the process you are being original, and then you find out no,” Yuille detailed. “But again, Marvel is very aware of the powers that they have in their universe and to the best that they can want to define different color palettes, looks. So they’re very aware of it and they remind us, ‘Oh, don’t make it look like this. Push it more towards this.’”

All six episodes of Ms. Marvel are now streaming on Disney+.