It turns out that Sandman star Thomas Hayden Church didn’t even show up on set for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
One of the most fascinating villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home was Thomas Hayden Church’s Sandman, who first appeared in the final film of Sam Raimi Spidey trilogy. Unlike most of the villains on-screen, Sandman simply wanted to return back to his universe to reunite with his daughter. The character’s return and his arc’s conclusion was favorably met, which is all the more surprising when you find out that Thomas Hayden Church didn’t even shoot any new footage for the role.
In a chat with before & afters, Spider-Man: No Way Home production visual effects supervisor Kelly Port discussed the two sides to the Sandman character, which can be seen both when he’s speaking to Peter Parker, and when he’s stuck in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
“There were two parts to him, where he’s more humanoid and talking, and when he is in the sanctum. Digital Domain did a lot of that work. And then Luma did the sequence that we called the power line corridor, which is where Sandman is first introduced. And Electro is also introduced and they have that little battle before they all meet and then get sent to the sanctum. I have to say, if you’re able to see that in extended dynamic range, for both that sequence and the end battle, it really looks cool in that higher dynamic range. That electricity just pops.”
The visual effects supervisor then continued by sharing how other effects companies composed Sandman’s moments in battle during the Spider-Man film’s finale.
“Then Imageworks, for the end battle, they did the much bigger Sandman with big FX sims. There were a lot of big sims in the end battle, not only with Sandman, but for the shield falling and crashing through all the scaffolding and millions and millions of pieces all interacting with each other, the crane falling through Sandman’s head and all that good stuff. I remember when we were first interviewing companies, there’s a little bit of collective post-traumatic stress disorder with anyone who had previously worked on Sandman. And so I knew that going in, I had a feeling this was going to be challenging both technically and creatively, just to get that character looking right and behaving right. But I think we were successful in the end. I think it looked pretty cool.”
The outlet then asked Kelly Port if Thomas Hayden Church shot any new footage for the film. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that some of the footage of Sandman in his humanoid form strongly resembled some cuts from Spider-Man 3. It turns out that the actor never set foot onto the set as all that was needed was his voice, as well as scans of his face.
“Well, we had his voice. We weren’t able to get a lot of visuals on him, but we were able to get his voice for sure and we got scans and textures and things like that.”
Here is the synopsis for Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man No Way Home:
“For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero’s identity is revealed, bringing his Super Hero responsibilities into conflict with his normal life and putting those he cares about most at risk. When he enlists Doctor Strange’s help to restore his secret, the spell tears a hole in their world, releasing the most powerful villains who’ve ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe. Now, Peter will have to overcome his greatest challenge yet, which will not only forever alter his own future but the future of the Multiverse.”
Directed by Jon Watts from a script written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Marvel’s No Way Home stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Tony Revolori, Martin Starr, J.B. Smoove, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Benedict Wong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx, with Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, and Tom Hardy.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters. Stay tuned for all the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: before & afters