Chimera, Minotaur, and Titans… The “Wrath of the Titans” team reveal their favorite creatures

Posted by Rick Marshall on March 27th

If you’ve seen any of the trailers or clips for “Wrath of the Titans,” you know that the film isn’t skimping on creature cameos for Perseus’ return to the big screen.

Whether it’s a well-known mythological monster like the bull-headed Minotaur or the massive, world-shaking titan Kronos, “Wrath of the Titans” offers a veritable cornucopia of creatures culled from legends and brought to life on the screen to battle Perseus (Sam Worthington). During the recent press junket for the film, IFC asked the cast and creators of the film which creatures they thought were the most memorable of the bunch.

“I loved the Chimera, because I love interaction,” said director Jonathan Liebesman of the fire-breathing beast that terrorizes Perseus’ village early in the film. “I love things running through walls. Completely creature-wise, the Chimera was the most fun. It’s fun on set blowing shit up, saying ‘There’s going to be a Chimera going from here to here, so let’s set explosions on that wall and blow it up.'”

“Wrath of the Titans” screenwriter Dan Mazeau agreed with Liebesman, calling the Chimera his favorite of the creatures that made the leap from page to screen.

“I would also say the Chimera fight in the beginning,” he said. “That was one of the first things we wrote, and it really stayed the same throughout the entire process. It was just a whole lot of fun to write Sam getting his ass beat by this incredible creature, and to have it realized in such a way is almost better than you imagine.”

For actor Toby Kebbell, however, it was the maze-dwelling Minotaur that left the biggest impression on him.

“I was there in the labyrinth when we were filming all of that, and the Minotaur was excellent,” said Kebbell, who plays the demigod Poseidon in the film. “The makeup was excellent. The boy doing the work put his heart and soul into it. The Minotaur was always my favorite anyway, reading books of Perseus and those kinds of stories — Medusa and Jason and the Argonauts and all of that…”

Still, it’s hard to ignore the biggest creature in the film, Kronos, a gigantic titan made of stone and lava with fists the size of a small village and a desire to destroy the world.

“Kronos is fun in terms of decimating huge areas, but all of that is created in a computer, so for a director that’s a little less fun,” admitted Liebesman. “But I have so much faith in our visual effects supervisor. I have so much faith in him and the technology that I felt comfortable saying, ‘Here’s the frame, and Kronos is going to be there, and we’ll add him on.’ The most difficult thing with Kronos is if you’re creating something that big, how does it interact with the world and how do you have your characters interact with him in a way that’s interesting? That’s more of the challenge. Kronos is interacting with things miles away.”

“Wrath of the Titans” hits theaters March 30, and stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Edgar Ramirez, and Toby Kebbell. Keep an eye on IFC.com for more from the “Wrath of the Titans” press junket.

Chime in below or on Facebook or Twitter.