How ‘The Walking Dead’s Greg Nicotero Helped Create ‘Alita: Battle Angel’

The Walking Dead‘s executive producer Greg Nicotero played a part in bringing the post-apocalyptic world of Alita: Battle Angel to live-action life.

While much of Alita: Battle Angel relied on the impressive visual effects work created by Weta Digital (the same team behind Lord of the Rings and the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy), much of the film required practical effects work. Cyborg bodies were computerized, however, elements of their bodies and faces required practical efforts to bring them to life, prompting Nicotero and his brilliant KNB effects team to have their names roll through the film’s credits.

“Look, we had a lot of practical work,” Alita: Battle Angel executive producer Jon Landau explained to ComicBook.com in the video above. “It’s that seamless blend. Zapan, he had practical appliances around his head where we were adding on a CG body and just leaving his face going to a CG head. Greg and the team had to put that together. Same thing with Nyssiana. Same thing with all of the background people. When we’re walking on the streets of Iron City, we’re augmenting some of the characters but they built prosthetic arms, prosthetic legs, other things that all worked in there.”

Nicotero is no stranger in bringing post-apocalyptic appearances to life. His team is responsible for innovating the looks of walkers on The Walking Dead, as well as the injuries on the series and a tiger for a pair of seasons.

Of course, Alita: Battle Angel also required a tremendous amount of digital work. In fact, had the film been made 15 years ago when executive producer James Cameron originally wanted to direct it, visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri says it would have never happend. “We always try to advance the technology based on what the movie needs, but 15 years ago it would have been hard to make that kind of leap,” Letteri said. “It was much better that we went the route that we did and did Avatar first because we learned so much from that that turned out to be the basis for what we used to create this film.” As the story goes, Robert Rodriguez took the original script from Cameron and became the director for the Alita: Battle Angel film which hits theaters on February 14, 2019.

The Walking Dead returns for the back half of its ninth season on February 10, 2019 at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.