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Educated Guess

What Is This Green Sock Puppet Hand on the Spider-Man Set All About?

by Jamie Frevele | 2:43 pm, May 9th, 2011


So, this picture from the New York City set of The Amazing Spider-Man has been making the rounds and it’s left people wondering about Rhys Ifans‘ hand. Namely: Is that Kermit? (Answer: No. Probably not.) Let’s speculate the pants off of this.

We are officially ruling out a Kermit the Frog puppet. There is no reason for that in a Spider-Man movie. Even though Disney owns Marvel, and Disney owns the Muppets. But Kermit the Frog, as far as we know, does not appear in the Marvel canon. So this is a different green, be-ping-pong-balled creation.

The story of Curt Connors/The Lizard is that after his arm was amputated after a blast (while he was performing surgery on wounded GIs), he started experimenting with reptiles who regenerate their limbs. He then tried the experiment on himself (after a successful trial run with a rabbit) and turned into the Lizard. So maybe this is a partially-formed reptile limb.

Unless Rhys Ifans actually has a deformed or semi-amputated hand. In the original Star Trek series, James Doohan‘s right middle finger was amputated after a war injury, so he was filmed in a way that would always conceal his right hand. But now that it’s 2011, there are ways to fix this problem. Maybe they are computer generating a new hand for Rhys Ifans … Oh, he has full use of his hand? Okay. Moving on.

Maybe The Amazing Spider-Man is a working title. Maybe it’s really called Spider-Man: The Secret of the Ooze.

Maybe Rhys Ifans made the acting decision to be a college professor who uses puppets to teach.

Maybe that puppet is a Glow-Worm.

Maybe it’s Slimer.

(Or Kermit. Seriously — what is that pointy triangle-shaped thing at the top of his sleeve???)

Or maybe it’s just for reptilian villain special effects to be added later. That’s probably what that is. But this was fun!

(Pic from Bleeding Cool)

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  • Kaitie Kudara

    I’m pretty sure that’s just a green screen cover so they can get rid of his arm in post.

  • http://amidstdancers.blogspot.com/ Shard Aerliss

    Green screens don’t usually have eyes. I’m willing to put money on it actually being a sock puppet and Dr Connors is being silly. That little bit of green is probably a piece of Kermit’s little neck frill.

  • Anonymous

    green screen. the balls are used fo determine position and help with 3D (both in digital backgrounds and 3D filming.)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Wesley-Smith/725105211 Wesley Smith

    Well, it’s obviously a Kermit sock puppet. If you enlarge the picture, the eyes and collar are clearly visible. But why? I’ve never worked in digital post-production, but I’d have to guess they’re using the puppet to help define the three-dimensional space in order to digitally remove the hand later, and somebody decided to get cute about it.

    But (supernerd comment coming) the weird thing is that the fabric doesn’t appear to be felt. The hand is too well-defined and smooth. It looks like it might be nylon or Lycra or something. But that would give support to the theory.

  • Really_rather_not_nice

    It’s pretty clearly a Kermit puppet. The eyes have the trademark Kermit pupils, and the pointy triangle thing at the top of the sleeve is part of Kermits collar/fringe neck thing. Now, is it possible they’re using the Kermit puppet as a green screen thing in a funny way, but I doubt it. But there’s no debating whether or not that’s Kermit. It’s Kermit.

  • Really_rather_not_nice

    It’s pretty clearly a Kermit puppet. The eyes have the trademark Kermit pupils, and the pointy triangle thing at the top of the sleeve is part of Kermits collar/fringe neck thing. Now, is it possible they’re using the Kermit puppet as a green screen thing in a funny way, but I doubt it. But there’s no debating whether or not that’s Kermit. It’s Kermit.

  • Kaitie Kudara

    That photo is photoshopped. Here’s the original:

    http://www.comingsoon.net/nextraimages/connors1.jpg

  • http://amidstdancers.blogspot.com/ Shard Aerliss

    And this is a reply to me and me only because…? :P

    Hmmm, that link just leads to the main page… I don’t think they like hotlinking.

  • WarrenDavis3 14159

    That was my first thought too.

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