Spider-Man: No Way Home puts the superhero played by Tom Holland against famous Spider-Man villains. But the interpreter of one of the villains did not go on the set! Warning, spoilers.
Warning, spoilers. You are advised to have seen Spider-Man: No Way Home before continuing to read this article.
Spider-Man: No Way Home has achieved the feat of bringing together many characters from the Spider-Man universe in this third installment of the trilogy worn by Tom Holland. This notably involves the irruption of famous villains, such as the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) or Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), but also by the former interpreters of the superhero, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
All these pretty people found themselves on the set for this epic adventure under the sign of the Multiverse. Well almost. Indeed, Thomas Haden Church, who plays the Sand Man, Peter Parker’s enemy in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, was not on the set!
This is what Kelly Port, the visual effects supervisor, revealed in an interview for Befores & Afters. She explains that several visual effects boxes worked on the Sand Man, most notably Digital Domain, on the more humanoid part of the character, and when he’s stuck in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum (Benedict Cumberbatch).
The Luma company took care of the introductory scene for Sandman and Electro (Jamie Foxx) in No Way Home. As for Imageworks, it took care of the final battle on the Statue of Liberty. Recreating the Sand Man has been a colossal job for the different visual effects companies:
“I remember when we first interviewed the companies there was a bit of collective post-traumatic stress for anyone who had ever worked on Sandman. And so I knew this was going to be a big deal. both technical and creative challenge, just to make this character look good and behave the right way. But in the end, we got it right. I think it looked pretty cool. “
Kelly Port then confirms what the fans thought: The Sand Man is only made of special effects in the film and the actor did not set foot on the set of No Way Home: “We couldn’t get a lot of visuals from him, but we were able to get his voice for sure and we got scans and textures and things like that.”
The reasons for the absence of actor Thomas Haden Church on the set of Spider-Man: No Way Home are not yet known, but it is not impossible that the pandemic could have been a major factor. This information also makes fans doubt the presence of Rhys Ifans, the interpreter of the Lizard, whose character also appears almost in special effects.