Marten Larsson started his visual effects journey at Digital Domain back in 2004. After more than a decade in the industry, he joined Marvel Studios in 2016 and later brought his expertise to HBO for Peacemaker season 2. His credits include 2012, Ender’s Game, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
This is your first time collaborating with James Gunn and joining the Peacemaker universe. How did that collaboration begin, and what was your first impression of his approach to visual effects?
James is very well versed in visual effects so he is great to collaborate with. He knows what goes into the work and is very accommodating to us on set. He also likes to lean into practical effects where it makes sense which is something I am a big fan of too. We had a lot of real explosions, real suits and leaned into stunts for superheroes landing, getting thrown or punched. That gave us great bookends to tie our visual effects into.
How was the VFX work divided among the different studios, and what criteria guided your choice of partners for this new season?
Weta FX was the largest vendor and they took care of Eagly and the Quantum Unfolding Chamber environments. Since they did all the Quantum unfolding chamber and Eagly work for season 1 so well, it made sense to keep that work with them.
Rodeo FX took on the suit work for Captain triumph and Blue Dragon as well as the helicopter explosion in episode 3 and the Alien in episode 4. They also did all of the Candyland Environment as well as all the Imps.
The rest of the work was split between SSVFX, FOLKS, Vitality Visual Effects, Peerless VFX and Mammal Studios.
Eagly is back and clearly has some unforgettable moments this season. What were the main challenges in bringing him to life again, both technically and creatively?
This season featured him a lot more so we knew we’d have some more close interaction with our actors, as well as a lot more closeups of Eagly. We did a few tweaks on the look to add some more interest when we got really close to him, mainly in the detail of the feathers on his head, making the darker centers more prominent at times, as well as adjusting them a bit to feel a bit less flat at times.
How did you approach the animation of Eagly this time around — did you update the rig or refine his performance style to push realism or personality further?
I was very spoiled on when it came to Eagly animation this season. So much of the bird behavior was dialed in with the team at Weta on season 1 that once we started looking at animation for season 2 I rarely (if ever) had to give notes on making him behave like an eagle. All my notes were on performance, not behavior. The key with Eagly’s animation was to make him feel like a real eagle was doing all these crazy things in the fights for example, but always keep him within the realm of what a real eagle could plausibly do. Always make him feel like a wild animal first. One of the more interesting sequences to make work was the first part of the fight with the A.R.G.U.S. team at Peacemaker’s house. When they first get attacked in the bedroom, Eagly needed to move around the room very quickly so no one could get a shot in and hit him. But the room was so small that a bird with a 6 foot wingspan would have a hard time flying around. So to get around this we leaned into the chaos. When Eagly was on top of the actors his wings were spread out for balance which also made him look big and menacing. Once he was airborne and flying around the room we made him fly very chaotic, hitting the walls and pushing off with his feet. That combined with going in and out of the flashlight’s light beam made the whole sequence work and Eagly felt like this caged animal moving around his cage and attacking anyone in proximity. The overall approach to this sequence and the following one in the backyard of the house was that Eagly would have easily taken out any of the agents one on one, but since there were so many of them Eagly had to jump from one to the next to keep them occupied.
Were there any specific sequences with Eagly that pushed your team to innovate in terms of simulation, feathers, or lighting?
The interaction with Peacemaker in the second episode was challenging for sure. Getting the hand and feather interaction to feel right was tricky. John Cena who plays Peacemaker does have very good spacial awareness which really helped. His hands left enough room for Eagly and when he pantomimed petting Eagly his hands were in a good spot.
Another sequence that was really interesting is Eagly with the fox. It was fun because we get some really nice closeups of Eagly in fairly flat lighting which really allowed us to get a good look at him and really let the asset, lighting and animation shine. To make sure the fox was anchored in reality we were lucky enough to be able to have a small little fox on set for reference. We shot a pass with the fox for each setup. It was a very curious little fox and it didn’t like sitting still so sometimes it was hard to get some sharp frames to use as a reference.
The Prime Eagle sequence was interesting too, where lots of eagles attack St Wild. We had similar overcast lighting and the sheen and texture of all the birds really comes through here. It was so great to see this come together and for the birds presence feel so menacing and real. The team at Weta did a really great job.
James Gunn is known for his emotional storytelling. How did you make sure Eagly’s interactions remained expressive and believable while being fully CG?
We had a few different practical props to help out on set. For lighting reference we had a stuffy that was made for season 1. This was not really used to guide interactions and was only shot as a reference pass after the takes.
There was also a gray hard foam version of Eagly in a neutral pose which we used as a guide for John Cena cuddling with Eagly on the bed in episode 1 for example. It was also great for lining up shots.
To help guide everyone where there was more interaction we had a correct size Eagly head on a stick, where the stick was the correct height for Eagly. With that one we could do better lineups where Eagly was moving the foreground for example, or where Eagly was doing something very specific and the framing was tight on him. It was used for example when Eagly plucks the eye out of Encino Man’s face in Auggie’s backyard.
Getting the eye-lines right is key with any cg creature so for shots where Eagly was close to the actors we would put a small stick where Eagly needed to be in shots where he isn’t moving too much. James would also use a microphone and act out Eagly’s squawks over the speakers to get everyone’s reactions right which was great. He would also call out some of Eagly’s actions over the speakers.
The Indian vision sequence between the hunter and Eagly is visually striking. How did this sequence come together from a VFX standpoint?
This was a pretty trippy sequence in the middle of everything haha. It changed a little bit as we went through it in prep and later shooting it on set. The main idea here is that St. Wild meditates and has a vision where he can see where Eagly is. One idea at some point was that he could see through Eagly’s eyes but that was later changed to St. Wild being an observer of Eagly and where he is. It made it more fun when we could see Eagly flying instead of just a POV. Some of what is on screen is described in the script. At some point it says St. Wild is “swept away in a VISION” and “The area around him changes from the woods to psychedelic blues and purples and pinks”. We did some concept art for what that could look like and James landed on these kind of blue purple and pink flames around St Wild when he transitions into the vision. We then keep the purple lighting on St. Wild while placing him in the air above Eagly so he can look down and see where he is. Very trippy but fun to figure out.
What were the key artistic and technical elements that helped convey the spiritual and dreamlike tone of that vision?
We used a mix of elements and lighting to puzzle this together. Our DP Sam was on board and we did a very dramatic lighting change as the camera pulls back from a closeup of St. Wild, lit by firelight sitting at a campfire in a forest, to a wide shot where the flames of the campfire turn white and mix with the psychedelic flames that fill the frame where the forest used to be. As the camera pulled back wide the on set, lighting swapped to a purple blue tone based on the concept art James had selected. We also shot some drone plates that are almost a POV of Eagly, but could also be the observer camera leaving the forest and moving up high. It gave the sequence a transition from being in one place on the forest floor to soaring in the air above the trees. That made it easier to bring in Eagly flying and St. Wild entering frame as an observer.
The Portal Hall is one of the most impressive environments of the season. How did you design and build this massive structure and its visual identity?
We called it the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, or QUC. It was established in season 1 but the camera never went further than right inside the door. For season 2 we had a lot more story in here and we needed to move around a lot more. So we kept the idea of the space from season 1 and some key design elements like how the chamber unfolds when you walk in, how the ceiling is a soft overhead grid mesh and the whole space is made up of these plinth like machines. Those were kind of our ground rules that were kept but from there the design differed a bit. Both in set-design and in how it was lit. The color scheme had more colored lights in it. The main colors were a pale green and a teal blue for the lights attached to the towers. The different sequences were then lit very differently to create more interest and these brighter pools of top lights were added here and there on set.
For the CG build and extension of this space we stuck mostly to these rules and really leaned into how the foreground was lit. It was very easy for things to become too busy making it just turn into visual noise. The trick to get around this was to create pockets or interest and areas of different lighting in order to make the space look visually interesting with a lot of variation in layout, while still feeling like it integrates well with the foreground set. So any lighting variation needed to be as drastic as we could make it while still being constrained with what the foreground was in surrounding shots. Within that framework we could create areas with more neutral brighter top lighting mixed with more blue green areas and so on. We also needed the more open areas to show the depth and size of the space and not block up the mid ground too much. The cherry on top was to sprinkle in some hand placed lights on the towers, normally a bit further away, where we needed to emphasize the depth further and add interest. We constrained these light colors mostly to the set light ones.
Among the many parallel universes glimpsed through the portals — including the creature-filled Door 22 — which ones were the most complex to create and why?
Door 22 was for sure the most intense world. There were a lot of challenges to deal with here. We were creating a whole world in an open landscape all the way to the horizon. This landscape was made up of candy canes and had a very unreal color palette. Even the sunlight was a pink tinted light. Because of this it was decided to shoot this inside on stage, rather than outside which is normally my preference for exterior with sunlight. We also connected it to the edge of our QUC set. It was the only door that actually had some of both worlds on either side of the door and not just a blue screen on one side. The set build was also very limited since the characters don’t move around a lot in there. On top of that we had these Imp characters that needed to interact with the grass and do a lot of interaction with our actors.
The main challenge with the landscape was to make it look plausible while still staying in the color palette of the world we were in and making it work with the candy pieces and sky colors from the concepts. It was very easy to make it very monotone or dual tone with the pink/orange grass, purple sky and pink sunlight. So to combat this we added a lot of warmth to the sunlight in the landscape, made the shadows cooler and added a subtle magenta/blue tone to the haze in the distant landscape as long as we were not looking too close to the sun when the haze took on the warmer tone of the sun. All of this was used to add color complexity in a world that at first glance looked like a very pink/orange world.
The Imps and the interaction with the actors was also a big challenge. At some point the actors get lifted up by the 7 inch tall Imps and carried away. For some of the interactions we had practical Imps made that the actors could grab or stomp on or in one shot, rip apart. We had squishy versions, versions that could stand on their own, a few gel like ones filled with gooey blood and the rip apart one. All built by our friends in the special effects department. These were great for the one on one interaction and for camera framing. This was a fun sequence to put together with animation as well. The overall approach was to use the Imps small size to their advantage. They attack in numbers and no matter how many you get off of you more are jumping on. The world is kind of like being in quicksand. As long as you are in there more Imps jump on you and the only way to be saved is to get out of there so you stop the flow of creatures, if not you are pulled down constantly. Rodeo FX took on both creating the landscape and the big animation task with both crowd animation and lots of hero animation, making sure the story point of the shot read clearly and then filling the rest of the shot with Imps relentlessly attacking and trying to bring the actors down. I kept finding new little Imps doing silly fun things in our animation reviews and it was always fun to watch new versions.
The Top Trio and their armor bring a whole new visual dimension to the show. How did you develop the look and functionality of these suits?
These suits were for the most part practical and on camera. Some designed by the costume department and some by Legacy FX. This was great since it meant we always had very good reference for when we needed to create digital versions of them for the flying shots. We also augmented Blue Dragon’s suit to have guns come out of the arms in one sequence.
Were there any particular challenges or creative opportunities in integrating the Top Trio’s armor during action-heavy sequences?
The only augmentations we made really were to add guns that folded up from Blue Dragon’s arms and at some point we needed to fold up Captain Triumph’s visor, which didn’t move in the practical suit. Other than that they were on camera, through the stunts and all the shots where they are not fully flying.
How long have you worked on this show?
I was on the show for about 1 year and 3 months.
What’s the VFX shots count?
We had 1826 shots on the show.
What is your next project?
Not sure yet what I am jumping onto next!
A big thanks for your time.
// VFX BREAKDOWNS
// TRAILERS
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Weta FX: Dedicated page about Peacemaker Season 2 on Weta FX website.
Rodeo FX: Dedicated page about Peacemaker Season 2 on Rodeo FX website.
SSVFX: Dedicated page about Peacemaker Season 2 on SSVFX website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025
