In the comics the martian Manhunter, known to un-hunted men as J ’ onn J ’ onzz, is a telepath, a shapeshifter, and the last survivor of an extraterrestrial revelation. While never integrating himself into human culture quite like Superman, J ’ onn is much down on earth palling around with humans while disguised or with superhumans while fighting galaxy-threatening evil-doers .
Fans of the Justice League animated series, and the CW ’ s Supergirl know him as a potent team member and ally. People who only keep up with the movies would … have no point of reference point. When Martha exited Lois Lane ’ sulfur apartment three-quarters of the way through Zack Snyder ’ sulfur Justice League and turned into an eight-foot green alien, there were likely some raised eyebrows, smashed pause buttons, and questions for the nearest amusing swot .
Zack Snyder didn ’ triiodothyronine intend for the martian Manhunter to show up in the movie — according to the director, he had hoped to include a cameo by a green Lantern, specifically John Stewart, but Warner Bros. ’ plans to use the character in a separate film put the stop on the sports fan service. So Snyder conjured up the idea of using martian Manhunter, and casting Harry Lennix, who played Secretary of Defense Calvin Swanwick in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman : click of Justice in the function. With a flying few scenes in Zack Snyder ’ south Justice League, a character fans thought they knew from two anterior movies became something else wholly.
The VFX kit Scanline brought the character to life on a very rigorous schedule ; work on the martian Manhunter only began in the fall of 2020. Scanline would go on to do over 1,000 shots across 22 sequences on the film, from redesigning Steppenwolf to the burrow, park, and subaqueous conflict sequences. On top of revising many of their original assets from the 2017 theatrical version, the company besides had to adjust every completed effect for Snyder ’ s preferable 1.33 aspect proportion .
Creating the martian Manhunter was a multi-step task that involved mixing Snyder ’ second notes with inner designs to land on something that could be congregation to the comics and Lennix ’ s performance. Bringing the actor under the sensor-reading camera was substantive to pulling it off.
Read more : White Raven
“ Facial performance, particularly when it comes to dialogue, has a bunch of intricacies that are intemperate to achieve without any reference, specially for a photo-real character, ” Julius Lechner, VFX Supervisor at Scanline, tells Polygon. “ In regulate to incorporate Harry ’ s personality and acting stylus into our CG character, it is incredibly beneficial to actually capture his performance. It is inactive a work-intensive process that requires creative manipulations to create a nuanced digital character. ”
Snyder ’ s big note was to get away from any look for the martian Manhunter that might appear as an actor wearing a prosthetic. “ An important topic, for case, was the shape of his skull, ” Lechner says. “ overall we wanted to keep a well balance between alien and homo aspects deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as Harry ’ s unique facial features. If we stray besides far from what an consultation is used to seeing such as human faces, the brain immediately questions it and pulls you out of the movie. ”
After the get, hundreds of hours are devoted to designing the final examination look, building a 3D model of the character, texturing, shading, matching the facial track, extra vivification, and cloth simulations. If that sounds like a batch of bring for a character who only appears for a infinitesimal or two, Lechner insists it ’ s the norm, and “ much less screen clock time than martian Manhunter ” take merely vitamin a long to execute .
Could we see more of martian Manhunter in the future ? The assets exist — but so far there aren ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate any contiguous demands for their practice. At least, from Warner Bros …