How Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy Convinced Disney to Let Them Use a Lightsaber and Captain America’s Shield in ‘Free Guy’

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorIn the best visual effects Oscar race, the underdog is Shawn Levy’s “Free Guy.” Despite being set in a virtual world, the film was made for $100 million with an even smaller budget for VFX.

But that didn’t prevent the film’s visual effects supervisor Swen Gillberg from delivering some of the best VFX sequences this year, as Ryan Reynold’s character Guy is thrust into the world of Free City, a “Grand Theft Auto”-inspired gaming world.“Free Guy” is an easter egg treasure trove, but perhaps the biggest is the nod to Captain America, Star Wars and the Hulk.

Levy explains that the idea behind the final fight, between Guy and his monstrous doppelgänger Dude, was that Guy would have access to weapons and upgrades as the characters level up. “We wrote a letter to Disney: ‘Dear Disney, this is Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds, could we use a lightsaber, or Cap’s shield or Hulk’s fist?’ I recollect that they said yes to all of them.

Ryan recollected that maybe they said pick one or two? And we just decided to use all of them,” Levy said.Adds Reynolds, “This is where it did get borderline lawless.