How Captain Marvel de-aged Samuel L. Jacksons Nick Fury

Sure, the spaceships and aliens and photon blasts are cool. But for my money, the most impressive special effect in Captain Marvel is Nick Fury. 

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The Fury of Captain Marvel is a good 25-30 years younger than Jackson in real life, which meant the VFX team had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to shave decades off his face in around 800(!) shots while avoiding uncanny valley territory, they had to match our own memories of what Jackson looked like in the mid-’90s. 

Amazingly, they pulled it off. The work is both drastic and subtle: Jackson is noticeably younger, but the de-aging VFX is so precise that someone who’d never seen Jackson before would assume the look was entirely natural. Now that’s a transformation worthy of a superhero.

Captain Marvel is available on digital starting May 28, and hits Blu-ray June 11.  

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