Marvel Studios Artist Explains Why The “Coolest” Character Designs Sometimes Get Chucked Off

The concept artists who get to work on the various films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might have a lot of great art that help assists each production, but not all concept art pieces and character designs get used by every Marvel movie.

Sitting down for an interview with Screen Rant, Marvel Studious Visual Development Supervisor Andy Park about the development process at Marvel and why movies like Ragnarok, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Ant-Man and the Wasp have so many unused character designs.

"It gets so hard because there are so many films [laughs]. It is hard to say because it's very subjective. Of course, as an artist, you get attached to your own designs. At the end of the day… for example, I did a whole bunch of designs for Yellowjacket that I was quite proud of, but at the end of the day I feel like they picked the right one – the one that Jackson Sze did was amazing and I don't disagree with them. The people at Marvel, and the directors that we get – they all have great eyes, and there's a reason why things get approved, you know? It's not always "What is the best design" – so often it is "What is the best design?" – but it's thinking what's the best design for the story we're trying to tell, and particularly for the sensibility of the particular director, you know? My job is so subjective. You to hold your own designs loosely. It's to serve a bigger purpose than just, ‘What is the coolest thing?'"

Park is pretty well known in fan circles. The designer often shares alternate character designs of various Marvel characters like the recently released caped version of T'Chaka's Black Panther on social media after every film's premiere.

Seeing how much work Park does around Marvel, it's understandable that the Visual Development Supervisor knows how to work on the studio's many designs and at the same time, let them go. Though the art pieces might look cool, at the end of the day, the designs out to fill a higher purpose, helping reach a final design that helps tell the director's story on the big screen.

Black Panther is currently screening in cinemas.

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