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James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy was a unique entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it came along. It was a much lighter take on the material, that also wasn't afraid to be emotional, all while using characters that (even among Marvel Comics fans) were not among the top tier. The movie did quite well, spawning a sequel with another on the way. And while we don't know what Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will ultimately be about, we can guess it won't be a horror movie, even though a recent image from the original film is liable to give you nightmares.
James Gunn posted some images to social media recently including one that, it has to be said, is a little creepy. The picture shows a mask that was created based on Zoe Saldana's face that was designed for body doubles to wear. The picture shared to Instagram shows three versions of the actress, one is the real thing, and the other two are wearing the mask and the mask was clearly created in the uncanny valley, check it out.
The mask is pretty impressive in its own way, but it's also mildly terrifying. Two people are wearing masks with identical expressions that are life-like, but not quite accurate enough considering the real Zoe Saldana is right there as Gamora. Still, the mask idea isn't a bad one. It's a simple way to make nearly anybody work as a stand in for the actress, which seems useful. But in the end it was better to simply take the time to put stunt people in proper makeup.
However, it seems that these masks were never needed. James Gunn explained in more detail on Twitter that Zoe Saldana did a remarkable amount of her own stunt work, meaning that the need for stand ins was greatly reduced, and the masks were never actually shot.
Even if these masks had been used they would have been part of scenes where we never got a good look at Gamora's face, so the slightly off look of the entire thing would have only ever been on the set. That's not to say there weren't some other "fake" Gamora's in Guardians of the Galaxy, as they actually complete Gamora dummies for the scene where Zoe Saldana's character gets saved by Star-Lord.
While the Gamora masks have probably been retired for good and may not even exist anymore, one assumes that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will find entirely new ways to create these characters in moments when the actors can't play the roles themselves. The third movie is set to go in front of cameras later this year.
