Most of the special effects in The Wheel of Time will be practical, enhanced by VFX. According to showrunner Rafe Judkins, that's what will make monsters like the Myrddraal so disturbing.Judkins discussed the show's special effects in an interview with Empire Magazine, shared on Twitter by podcast Talk'aran'rhiod. "They are unbelievably horrifying," he said of the Myrddraal. "I think we've done our job with them." Computer graphics will be used to show characters channeling the One Power, but non-human characters and monsters are designed with a foundation of prosthetics before digital effects are used.In the book series that inspired The Wheel of Time, Myrddraal, also called Fades or the Eyeless, are a kind of "Shadowspawn" which command the animalistic Trollocs and are even harder to kill. One of the horrifying creatures in question appeared briefly in the show's first teaser trailer, displaying a pale, eyeless face and a mouth full of pointed teeth. After the trailer was released, further details about the making of the show's monsters came out in a Q&A on Twitter with Judkins and Moiraine's actor Rosamund Pike.Asked about the Myrddraal, Judkins said, "The Myrddraal, like almost all elements in the show, is as much practical as we could manage, enhanced by VFX. I always think that gives a more disturbing and real-feeling quality than full VFX creatures."
Another fan in the Q&A found the glimpse in the trailer scary enough to ask, "How many nightmares did that flaming Fade give you?" Judkins related a memory of the actor who played the monster, pointing out the difference between watching it being filmed and the finished product.
Pike, on the other hand, described exactly what she found so frightening about the Myrddraal: "His very feminine lips, concealing rows and rows of teeth give me nightmares... And don't get me started on the skeleton mask his horse wears."
Myrddaal, Trollocs and other strange and unnatural creatures will be invading Amazon Prime Video when The Wheel of Time premieres on November 19. Executive produced and written by Rafe Judkins, the series stars Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Barney Harris, Josha Stradowski and Madeleine Madden.
Source: Empire Magazine, Twitter