Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw its fair share of graphic death scenes – but one particularly inventive moment came directly from Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige himself. The scene sees John Krasinski's Mr. Fantastic confront Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch in the Illuminati headquarters… and get promptly turned into spaghetti by Wanda's powers.
"At one point, Wanda turns Reed Richards (John Krasinski) into all these shredded, stringy forms," Industrial Light & Magic VFX supervisor Julian Foddy told Befores & Afters. "The starting point there was some reference that was passed to us by [VFX supervisor] Janek Sirrs directly from Kevin Feige. It was someone passing a lump of modeling clay or Play-doh through a garlic press. Janek also had some reference of the Play-doh 'Barber Shop' toy, which was a little figure with holes in the head and you'd turn a handle and the Play-doh would come out. That was the kind of look we were going for."
Foddy added that some artistic license was taken with the scene to avoid things getting too gory. "Making it feel like organic material and getting the right amount of flex and balance to the strings, as they come off, was quite a technical challenge," he said. "There were cheats, because if you were to actually shred a real human being in such a way, there would be an awful lot of flesh and blood. Of course, this is a Marvel movie and we don't want to be too gruesome."
Krasinski was a popular fancast for the role of Mr. Fantastic before the film, though it seems he may not be continuing on in the MCU in the Fantastic Four movie, with his cameo instead meant as a shout-out to fans. "It's so funny that [Feige] cast John because the fans had a dream of who the perfect Reed Richards would be," director Sam Raimi said in the film's audio commentary, adding: "And because this is an alternate universe, I think Kevin said, 'Let's make that dream come true.'"
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is streaming on Disney Plus now. For much more on the movie, check out our explainers on:
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