Although we still have a few more months to go before Justice League storms cinemas, the film’s main villain, Steppenwolf, seems to be enjoying being in the spotlight as of late. First, movie studios were given yet another lesson that they should reveal what characters are to look like onscreen via officially released images, as opposed to toylines continuing their time-honored tradition of letting the cat out bag, when some pictures of Darkseid’s subordinate surfaced online.
In addition to that, actor Ciaran Hinds had some interesting things to say about the motion capture process when asked why he didn’t show up in costume in a recent appearance on The Michael Ball Show:
“I’m sorry I’m not in costume. I didn’t even have a costume when I was doing it. It’s all done in motion capture. So… they stick a helmet on your head, they put two cameras around, and they capture all your expressions, facial expressions.
So basically, they’re going to concoct some kind of construction and they will use my facial expressions – eyes, mouth, voice – they’ll turn into this murderous, avenging Steppenwolf from the planet Apokolips, apparently. Who’s bent on Hell on Earth.”
Now that we’ve cleared up that Steppenwolf is bent on Hell on Earth, and not hellbent for leather, we’ll move on to the quote that’ll likely incite more discussion. Basically, Hinds says he never met his fellow cast members:
“No, I don’t know whether they’re all afraid to come and meet me– no, no they weren’t, really. Because it’s imaginary, you do it with green screen… That was another challenge, you could say, yeah. But it was quite fun. And they’re very encouraging in what you do, suggesting ‘Over here, look over there, imagine that, do this here, they’re coming at you now.’”
Before you flip out and say this means another DC movie will be a “mess,” keep in mind that actors playing CGI villains never interacting with the rest of the cast isn’t an uncommon occurrence in the industry. Sure, Steppenwolf could be pulled off more practically than Darkseid, but we don’t fully know what Zack Snyder’s vision of him is yet.
Regardless, all we can really do is head to theaters when Justice League opens on November 17 and hope for the best.
