WandaVision VFX Supervisor Breaks Down Monica's Big Hex Moment
Make no mistake about it, WandaVision was all about the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision [...]
Make no mistake about it, WandaVision was all about the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Even then, the series introduced a handful of new characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, giving some of them proper origin stories throughout the nine episodes of the show. Enter, Teyonah Parris' Monica Rambeau.
By the time the series wraps, Rambeau doesn't officially take on one of the superhero names she's known for in the Marvel source material. What she does get, however, are powers that manifest in a few ways. First, she crosses into The Hex for the third time and her genetic makeup is permanently altered. This gives her vision-based powers, and the ability to turn herself invincible to stop speeding bullets — but as far as we know, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Monica entering The Hex a third time was done by Rodeo FX's massive visual effects team, some 340 artists strong. We recently caught up with Rodeo's Julien Hery, who helped us break down the momentous scene.
"I remember the first concept was visually really striking, with lots of things happening, so we started this path when we did our R&D. It was an FX feast," Hery tells us.
The moment involves multiple Monica's split apart from one body as she traverses time in space in a sequence that'd make the Sorcerer Supreme jealous. According to Hery, they played around with analog technology to get the right look while keeping in the spirit of the show.
"We were playing with this magnet on a TV screen, so it was like, 'Okay, what can be bigger than a magnet? And when you have a bigger object or a stronger interaction, what could be?,'" the filmmaker adds. "So maybe we could do magnetic eruptions, the same thing as you have on the sun, like solar flares and stuff like that."
Hery admits that angle was a little too excessive and they eventually opted to scale back a decent amount.
"But then it was one of those cases where, okay, maybe that's a bit too much, and you go a bit away from the storytelling point," he says. "That needs to be a bit more, not simpler, but focused on the real action, so we kind of strip it down quite a bit to something that is, in my opinion, way better, because you know what we say, like less is more."
"You get something that is still very complex, there are many layers and many things involved, but you get a clear read of everything that is going on and you can read the action."
WandaVision is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+.
What was your favorite moment of the show? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!
