Game of Thrones alum Ciaran Hinds will play Steppenwolf in Justice League and while our first look at the villain recently came via some LEGO sets and action figures, we know very little about what to expect from him. He will, however, be an entirely CGI character whose sights are set on retrieving the three powerful Mother Boxes and conquering Earth seemingly on behalf of the villainous Darkseid.
In a new interview, Hinds reveals that he never actually got to spend any time with the movie's star-studded cast as his scenes were shot entirely with motion-capture to be added in post-production.
"I don’t know whether they’re all afraid to come and meet me — no, no, they weren’t, really. Because it’s imaginary, you do it with green screen," Hinds tells the BBC. "That was another challenge, you could say, yeah. But it was quite fun. And they’re very encouraging in what you do, suggesting ‘Over here, look over there, imagine that, do this here, they’re coming at you now.'"
Hinds also shed some light on the huge amount of work going into creating Steppenwolf's costume and revealed that he actually turned to friend Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls) for advice on playing a motion-capture character. "I didn’t even have a costume when I was doing it. It’s all done in motion capture. So, they stick a helmet on your head, they put two cameras around, and they capture all your expressions, facial expressions. So basically, they’re going to concoct some kind of construction and they will use my facial expressions – eyes, mouth, voice – they’ll turn into this murderous, avenging Steppenwolf from the planet Apokolips, apparently, who’s bent on hell on Earth."
It sounds like we're really in store for something special when it comes to Steppenwolf in Justice League and while the vast majority of fans would have preferred to see Darkseid get the spotlight, it should be fun to see what Hinds - no stranger to playing bad guys - brings to the table this November.