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Avengers: Doomsday production designer Gavin Bocquet has recently revealed that the upcoming Marvel film uses a lot of physical set backdrops, admitting the use of blue screen has been "the default situation" for the franchise until now.
During an appearance on The Young Indy Chroniclers podcast, Bocquet started talking about the Thunderbolts* post-credit scene, which was filmed on one of Doomsday's sets built with physical backdrops. "The actors were coming in, almost saying: 'Well this is the first time we've been on a Marvel set where everything is in camera'. They were so used to having, 'Oh, we'll put the blue on the screen, we can put the ship in later'. So, wherever you looked, it was like, 'Ah that's interesting'," he recalled.
This early experience on set – Doomsday filming hadn't yet begun – led the creative team to take on a different approach when it came to practical sets. "We were very keen later on. We had lots of sets with backings outside, physical backings, and, generally, the default situation previous to us was probably, 'Let's put blue screen out there and do that'. But wherever possible, we either had a Rosco backing that we created ourselves, or painted backing – I think 80% of the interior sets with backings," Bocquet shared.
"In the end, that's as much a visual thing as a money thing," he continued. "Whatever we do, we were bringing that bit of experience in just to adjust those things and not presume you can always put it in visual effects. Filmmaking is an art of illusion, and if we can do it physically... and Joe and Anthony [Russo] really liked that. You know, we can only do it in certain instances, by nature of these films and the characters in them and the environments you're doing. But wherever possible, why not try those things."
Set to arrive a year from now, Doomsday is one of the most highly anticipated movies in the franchise, boasting a star-studded cast including Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, former X-Men stars like Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, and the entire group of the Thunderbolts* and the Fantastic Four.
Doomsday arrives on December 18, 2026, right after Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows for everything else the MCU has in store.
