As much action, humor and emotional heft the movie possesses, Marvel’s Thunderbolts* also delivers a massive post-credits scene. The scene in question sees the recently established New Avengers discussing recent events at their headquarters before noticing the arrival of an interdimensional vessel owned by the Fantastic Four. Behind-the-scenes details on the scene are still dropping, and it now seems the scene marked a “first” for some of the actors. And this reveal now has me excited for the next Avengers movie.
It’s since been revealed that the aforementioned end-credits moment is a scene from the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and was helmed by Joe and Anthony Russo. Given the scene was devised long after Thunderbolts* wrapped and shortly before filming for Doomsday commenced, the creative team was in a unique position. Gavin Bocquet, the production designer on the upcoming superhero movie, recently recalled the challenge and explained how he and his collaborators went old-school for aspects of the scene:
We used a physical backing, a sky backing, of New York outside the window. There's a monitor on the screen which shows the F4 ship coming in and, because there was no time for post [production], everything on that set was virtually in-camera. You could go anywhere, and even the screen they had to shoot.
Of course, what we’re talking about here are tried-and-true practical effects, which have become something of a novelty in the era of advanced VFX. I love this tidbit that Bocquet shared with Young Indy Chroniclers (as seen on YouTube). The sheer notion of there being a working monitor showing the FF’s ship arriving and there even being a New York backdrop instead of a blue screen just makes me smile. Based on Bocquet’s comments, this was refreshing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe stars involved in the shoot:
Everybody was coming on, the Marvel guys were coming on, and the actors were coming on, and they were 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.’
By this point, MCU regulars like Sebastian Stan and Florence Pugh have had plenty of experience acting against blue and green screens due to copious amounts of effects needing to be added later. I love the idea of them walking onto a set and being surprised at just how much of the elements are practically done. The reason all of this makes me excited for Doomsday is that the practical approach won’t be limited to this one scene. Bocquet acknowledged that while such practical effects couldn’t be done all the time, given the nature of the film, he later said the Russos did “like” the idea of employing practical elements when they could.
It’s understandable as to why not many of the MCU films or TV shows commonly make use of practical effects, considering they tell larger-than-life stories about gods, aliens and more. However, there are some films for which a lot of details were captured in-camera, with Chloé Zhao’s underrated Eternals being a prime example. Zhao’s approach was refreshing and, with that, I’m not curious to see what Gavin Bocquet, the Russos and co. do with their highly anticipated superhero epic.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18 as part of the 2026 movie schedule. In the meantime, stream Thunderbolts* and a host of other MCU films using a Disney+ subscription.
