Anyone familiar with blockbuster movie production will know that VFX is one of the most stressful jobs in the industry. A combination of tight deadlines, low pay, unclear directions, and zero job security is a recipe for unhappiness. Even so, most of the time it all works out, and films look amazing. But when it doesn’t a film can become a laughing stock (hi, Cats!).
So it’s perhaps no surprise that the Spider-Man: No Way Home VFX crew were working flat out on completing shots prior to its premiere in December. But what may surprise you is that work didn’t actually conclude for another month, long after everyone had seen the movie.
Digital Domain’s Scott Edelstein revealed all in an interview with Comicbook.com, saying:
“We’re picking that stuff up and running with it all the way up to the end, really. And sometimes, even after say the feature film delivers for the North American audience, they’ll want to add shots or do additional shots for like the video release or behind the scenes and this and that. I think we were still doing shots like into mid-January or something, on the show that’s delivered in December.”
The No Way Home deleted scenes don’t sound very effects-heavy, though anytime Spider-Man is on-screen there’s at least some CGI involved. Other than that, it’s possible that some work needs to be done on producing the many behind-the-scenes featurettes confirmed to be on the disc.
Beyond that, any work done will mean that the Spider-Man: No Way Home you saw in cinemas won’t be exactly the same movie on home release. You’ll likely need eagle-eyes actually to spot any differences, though, with any alterations probably coming in the form of particle effects clipping through scenery or subtle tweaks to compositing and color grading.
Sadly, we’ll have to wait a little longer to know for certain. Spider-Man: No Way Home was originally going to land on digital and Blu-ray in early March, though Marvel Studios and Disney have now confirmed that digital arrives on March 22 and 4K UHD Blu-ray on April 4.
