We’ve seen the casting news, we’ve seen the set pictures—we’ve even seen the poster. But now it’s time to get our first look at the stars of Marvel’s long-in-the-works adaptation of Inhumans. And... well, you can see for yourself.
Released through Entertainment Weekly this morning, the first-look image unites Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Medusa (Serinda Swan), Crystal (Isabelle Cornish), Maximus (Iwan Rheon), Karnak (Ken Leung), and Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor). Sadly, still no Lockjaw in sight, even though we know he’s coming to the show.
Honestly, some of these costumes work way better than others. Anson Mount’s Black Bolt probably comes out the best of these, borrowing a few elements from his classic comic book look, and Isabelle Cornish’s Crystal gets some points for effoft for at least trying to emulate the character’s black-tinged locks from the comics. But the most disappointing of all has to be Medusa, who honestly looks less like she’s the Queen of the Inhumans and more like she’s trying to do a particularly low-budget cosplay of Game of Thrones’ Sansa Stark.
The accompanying interview with showrunner Scott Buck—who was also showrunner on Netflix’s Iron Fist series—also offers a few new details about the series. Buck describes Inhumans as a family drama, with “one big story” driving the whole series across both the Inhuman city of Attilan (hinted as being off-planet by Buck, as it has been several times in the comics) and Earth. Buck also warns fans not really to expect much crossover with its fellow show Agents of SHIELD, which has also dealt with the rising Inhuman population in Marvel’s shared universe:
Have you thought about crossover at all?
Not at this point. [Laughs] We’re just trying to get this launched.
Meanwhile, Buck also teased how some of the Inhuman’s power sets will work on the show. Black Bolt’s psychic communication abilities—used because his actual voice emits dangerously powerful hypersonic sound waves—will not lead to the character using a voice-over narration, but instead see elements of sign language integrated into Mount’s performance, while he will be“choosing his words carefully” when he does talk.
Thankfully, Buck also mentions that Medusa’s hair—long, flowing locks that the character’s powers allow her to manipulate and grow for offensive and defensive abilities—is also a work in progress, so maybe it’ll end up looking better than it does in the image above.
It is very difficult. Even now, it’s still a process. It takes quite a long time in post to make that effect work. We have some of the best visual effects people available working on our show. We still haven’t seen the final version of it; it’s very much a work in process.
Inhumans hits IMAX theaters September 1, ahead of the rest of the limited series airing on ABC this fall.