There is a new chief creative officer at Epic Games. Charlie Wen has taken over the position previously held by Donald Mustard, who announced his retirement a few days ago. Former concept artist and designer Wen has experience at a number of companies, including Riot, Disney, Marvel, Sony, and more.
From his LinkedIn:
The look and feel of Marvel’s countless renowned heroes and villains from other realms had to be designed and integrated into one cohesive cinematic universe by Charlie. He was also in charge of using keyframes to visually express stories in order to inspire future screenplays. He directed the early Black Panther art as well as Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Thor.
Some of Wen’s tweets contain illustrations for Marvel characters that resemble what we see in the movies quite a bit. Here are a few of Wen’s designs for Thor: The Dark World, one of my personal favourite Marvel films.
As if that weren’t enough, Wen also contributed to the creation of Kratos, the violent mascot of PlayStation, by working on early sketches of his famed Blades of Chaos weaponry on napkins.
Wen once said in a PlayStation blog, “As ideas started to flow, I realised I had no sketchbook—good thing the restaurant had napkins. I had a vivid image of Kratos in my mind, and I felt compelled to draw it (or at least sketch it out on a napkin). He was wielding two large blades that were attached to his forearms by chains. He was swinging the blades around, and they were creating a deadly whirlwind.
It’s appropriate that someone with Wen’s skills has been selected to lead Epic’s artistic endeavours. Because of how skillfully Fortnite creates character skins from so many various entertainment IPs, including Marvel and God of War, and even actual individuals, it has unquestionably become Epic’s most popular game. It seems reasonable for Epic to have someone whose LinkedIn profile boasts of developing Kratos.
