Marvel visual design boss promises the MCU will only get “bigger and bigger”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe officially launched in 2008 with Iron Man. Fourteen years later, and it’s the most successful film franchise in history.

Can it keep going like that? With many more movies and TV shows on the way, that’s certainly the plan, and one of the key figures making it happen is Andy Park, who has served as the director of Marvel Studios’ Visual Development team for the past 12 years. “It just gets wider and wider, the picture gets bigger and bigger, even after Endgame,” Park told SyFy Wire. “You think, ‘What else in the world is there to go? We’ve seen everything! We’ve seen the cosmic, we’ve seen this and that.’

"But moving forward, we’re gonna have Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we’re gonna be seeing that pocket of the universe; we’re going to be seeing Thunderbolts … It’s the exact same model as the Marvel Comics … It’s been many, many decades of just building upon characters and worlds, but it’s all in the same universe."

It’s true that Marvel Comics essentially operate on an eternal cycle of renewal and overlap. Why shouldn’t the movies be the same?

Andy Park’s poster for Ant-Man 3 teases the future of the MCU

Park got to show off some of his recent work at D23, when fans got a look at some teaser art for the upcoming Ant-Man movie:

“Because we’re a unique department in the film industry, where we’re full-time, we work even in post with VFX. We [also] work with marketing a lot of times. So we’ll get to do those illustrations and posters for Comic-Cons,” Park said. “I did that one for Quantumania and that’s kind of like the first full reveal of anything for the film. It’s hinting at the Quantum-Verse, as well as hinting at Kang without showing too much.”

"And, of course, three things that you see clearly are the costumes of Cassy, Scott, and Hope … and you see a little bit of their personalities in there. Kevin had the idea that as they come out, each one’s going to be revealed. So I kind of had to go back into the illustration to make it work for that reveal as the actors are coming out. It’s an honor to be able to be part of those kinds of introductions."

Kang the Conqueror is the next big villain the Marvel multiverse. Will he be able to tie things together the way Thanos did back in the day? Stay tuned.

Taika Waititi’s kids helped design the monsters from Thor: Love and Thunder

The most recent film Park worked on was Thor: Love and Thunder, which is about to get a home video release. “Working with [director Taika Waititi] was just lots of fun,” he said. “We’re creating all these characters, but we’re also working with each individual filmmaker and they all have their own voice. We have four Thor movies, but the third and fourth are quite different from the first two. And yet, it’s the same character. That’s the exact same models as Marvel Comics, right? The way Stan Lee wrote Thor is quite different from someone like Michael Straczynski.”

Park also revealed that his design team gets inspiration from some unexpected places. For instance, ever wonder where the idea for Gorr’s shadow monsters came from? “While [Taika] was writing the script, his daughter read that part and she’s like, ‘What does a shadow monster look like?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know, why don’t you draw it?’ Then she drew something and that became the idea,” Park said.

"We started getting drawings from Taika’s kids, as well as Christian Bale’s, and I think there were producers that were having their kids do some drawings. We took those drawings and we interpreted that [and asked:] “How do we make that realistic and scary?” … Gorr’s daughter is doing chalk drawings on a rock when they’re in the desert and also in their cave area. That’s why they’re based off of children’s drawings, because those creatures come from her imagination. He saw those drawings that his daughter did and he fully realized them in those creatures."

So there you go, everyone: if you want your ideas to make it into a Marvel movie, try and be born to someone already working on them.

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