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It is known that Captain Marvel takes place in the 90s. Given the release of the first trailer for Captain Marvel,

we now know that

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) appear in the movie.

Given that these characters need to appear around 25 years younger than today, How much CG de-aging technology (similar to that applied to Rober Downey Jr, Micahel Douglas, and Kurt Russell previously) is applied?

Note: This is not a futureworks question because the answer requires out-of-universe information which could be available at any time (if not already) and is defintely not tied to the release of the film.

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    @ZeissIkon: Well, it's somewhat more time in the case of Douglas (he's 73), and in the case of RDJ, he was de-aged to be a teenager. In this case, it's possible that you could get away with makeup trickery. Perhaps. Anyways, why would you assume they would apply the same techniques? It's expensive.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 16:45
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    Forgot to mention Kurt Russell too.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 16:56
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    I think the answer is that it's not a very good one. The de-aged Samuel Jackson is very close to the uncanny valley in my opinion.
    – Hans Olo
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 17:40
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    This might do better on movies.SE. Their 'help' didn't clarify on-topic-ness, but I do see an equivalent question about green screen technology tagged 'film-techniques' and 'effects'.
    – gowenfawr
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 18:39
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    screenrant.com/captain-marvel-samuel-l-jackson-digitally-de-age - A bucketload in every scene.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 19:00

1 Answer 1

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According to Kevin Feige, they're using the same de-aging technology that they used previously. As summarized in Screen Rant:

In a new interview with Slash Film, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talks about the de-aging of Michelle Pfeiffer through digital technology in Ant-Man & The Wasp, and indicates the same technology will be used on Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel. "Well, I think having the option is pretty amazing. And I think having the technology and even without spoiling anything, Sam Jackson is shooting a movie for us right now that takes, where he’s entirely 25 years younger the whole movie," Feige notes, admitting that the fact that actors like Jackson, 69, have aged well helps with the technology.

The full interview at Slash Film more clearly shows that "how much" has moved up to "for the entire movie":

Feige: Sam Jackson is shooting a movie for us right now that takes, where he’s entirely 25 years younger the whole movie [Captain Marvel]. So that’ll certainly be the one–

SlashFilm: And Coulson, right?

Feige: And Coulson. So that’ll be the first one where it’s a character for the whole movie, as opposed to a glimpse at a certain period of time. It’s the whole movie.

I think Feige also addresses OP's concern from the comments:

Anyways, why would you assume they would apply the same techniques? It's expensive.

when he says, "And I think having the technology...." Usually technology like this is simple to conceive, expensive to design, expensive to implement, and cheap to use. Once you have it, the incremental cost of using it only goes down. Having improved their de-aging up to this point, there's no point in not using it when they need to.

And as Valorum points out in the comments, the people doing that work are getting paid whether they're busy or not; might as well keep them busy.

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  • The answer to my question "how much" is pretty much in there too. You might want to draw attention to is a little better.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 20:43
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    Note that Marvel has their own in-house CGI studio of nearly a thousand people. You've literally got to come up with excuses to use them (monumental battle sequence, anyone?) or else you're paying 1000 salaries for people to sit on their hands.
    – Valorum
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 20:55
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    @ThePopMachine I'm not completely sure what you're targeting with "how much" - how many years? How much screen time compared to previous limited efforts like Young Tony? How many passes with the deagezinator are required?
    – gowenfawr
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 21:54
  • @gowenfawr: My question was "how much" and the answer here is "for the entire movie". I.e., not just one or two scenes.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 22:06
  • @Valorum: “you're paying 1000 salaries for people to sit on their hands” — or, ideally, answer future works questions on here all day long.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Mar 8, 2019 at 12:19

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