In Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to fight Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who intends to make the gods extinct. For Marvel's latest blockbuster, Luma Pictures' Los Angeles and Melbourne teams delivered 173 shots across two major sequences, including the New Asgard Battle scene. Luma was entrusted with bringing to life Gorr the God Butcher’s pivotal “shadow monsters,” which happened to be designed by the filmmakers and cast’s children.

Before Luma was attached to the project, the team on Thor: Love and Thunder was having a difficult time designing concepts for these creatures in the film. Everything the animators ideated felt too similar to recent creatures seen in movies. But in a brilliant stroke of inventiveness, director Taika Waititi asked his own daughter to draw a scary creature from her imagination. Taking this design to the Marvel art department, which then rendered the drawing into a 3D animation, the team realized that nothing could produce fantastical and otherworldly creatures quite like the imagination of a child. The producers then asked all the children on set – a group that included Waititi and Chris Hemsworth’s children as well as the kids of some of the producers, crew, etc. –  to reach into the corners of their imaginations and come up with other concepts for the art department to turn to the shadow demons. 

Helmed by VFX supervisor Andrew Zink, Luma then stepped onto the scene, inheriting these brilliant concepts and helping to take on the honor of bringing these children’s wildest dreams to life. Zink and his team created bespoke creatures for everything from lifelike background shots to distinguished hero and action shots. These creatures play a prominent role in the film, notably when Gorr first appears during the big fight when Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor gets re- introduced on screen.  They have been a major conversational lightning rod for fans and critics since the film was first screened. 

In addition to the shadow creatures, Luma Pictures made major contributions to the creation of The Mighty Thor (even going so far as to create this ultra-viral hero reveal). Luma was also the team behind creating and demonstrating the new power wielded by Thor’s mighty hammer Mjolnir, in which the weapon splits apart and flies like high-velocity bullets. This combination of work on both the illustrious shadow creatures and one of the film’s main heroes makes Luma’s contributions to the film and artistry invaluable.