Find out how Falcon—aka Captain America—flies differently compared to other Marvel heroes as told by Eric Leven, the VFX Supervisor of Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Spoilers ahead!
It has been weeks since the premiere of Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier season finale. At long last, Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) takes up the mantle of Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) as the new Captain America. We have not even recovered from Sam’s polemic speech—one that resonates with people in the real world. But apart from the highly-anticipated plot, a talented cast and admirable characters, the show has a laudable VFX team that has made both the viewing experience and story marvellous.
A recent video showing behind the scenes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier reveals how the story and VFX come together in portraying Sam’s character. For instance, the VFX team wanted to make sure each action scene to be grounded in reality. “So, obviously, we don’t have Anthony Mackie flying around in a real jetpack and real wings,” Eric Leven, the show’s VFX Supervisor shared. “But we want to make it feel like—if he was, how would we film that?”
Other superheroes, like Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr), also have the ability to fly. But the VFX team wanted to differentiate the flight pattern for Falcon. The visual language that the team was aiming for was to make Sam’s flight appear as real as possible.
In the opening scene of the series, Sam jumps off a moving plane and flies onto the nose of another aircraft. If you’ve seen the first episode, you’d probably agree that it looks real—that’s because it is. Even the people gliding across the sky in wingsuits were very much real as well.
