The VFX house shares its incredible work creating Marcellus, the highly intelligent octopus at the center of the Netflix film adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel.

‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ now streaming on Netflix. Images courtesy of Untold Studios © 2026 Netflix, Inc.

Untold Studios has just shared with AWN and VFXWorld a breakdown reel highlighting their work with Netflix and director Olivia Newman to bring Marcellus, a fully CG, highly intelligent octopus, to life in Remarkably Bright Creatures, the film adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel. The movie debuted at number one on the Netflix film charts following its recent release.

Known for creature and character work across film and advertising, Untold Studios joined the project during early development to help define how Marcellus could be realized for the screen. Senior VFX Supervisor Chris Ritvo led the studio’s efforts, reuniting with Newman following their collaboration on Where the Crawdads Sing.

Enjoy Untold’s VFX Breakdown:

Go behind-the-scenes with the film’s stars:

“Before we even started prep, we spent around six months researching how we could bring Marcellus to life,” said Newman. “We learned pretty quickly that there was no way to train an octopus to perform in the way the story required. So, we knew the bar for our CG Marcellus had to be as photoreal as possible.”

Head of Animation at Untold Studios Ross Burgess said octopuses are among the most complex creatures to recreate in VFX because of their soft-body anatomy, constant micro-movement, changing skin texture and color, and highly dexterous arms. Marcellus also had to interact naturally with water, tank glass, props and live-action environments, often moving between underwater and above-water states within the same sequence.

Untold Studios proved their approach with an early CG test based on a scene from the script that showed Marcellus hiding on a shelf. The test gave the filmmakers confidence that the character could be built digitally with the realism and performance range needed for the story.

According to Ritvo, “Marcellus was built as a complete performance asset rather than a shot-specific solution. His look development was designed around the adaptability of a real octopus, with multiple pattern, texture and camouflage states that could be blended across scenes. The model included more than 270 suckers per tentacle across eight arms, supported by layers of rigging that allowed animators to shape both broad performance and highly specific sucker and contact behavior.”

 

On set, production used a puppet matched to Marcellus’ color, scale and texture, giving the filmmakers and VFX team practical lighting reference while preserving the flexibility of a fully CG performance in post.

“When you look at a real octopus, everything is moving all the time, in every direction,” said Ritvo. “Our CFX team created the skin and tentacle movement that really made Marcellus come alive underwater.” Untold also developed simulation passes for tentacle movement, skin detail, environmental contact and underwater behavior to give Marcellus the tactile, living quality needed for Newman’s adaptation.

The work builds on Untold Studios’ previous creature experience, including Blub Blub for Disney and Octo for BMW’s Heart of Joy. That foundation gave the team a head start in rigging and look development while allowing Marcellus to push further in realism, nuance and character performance.

Marcellus also appears beyond the film itself, featuring in the wider launch campaign for Remarkably Bright Creatures, including the new film tie-in edition of Van Pelt’s novel and a Times Square billboard.