Of all the new elements introduced in season two of Westworld, the impressively athletic and eerily silent “drone hosts” are perhaps the most unsettling. Quartered away in the park’s many underground laboratories, these creeps aren’t designed to be convincingly human like other hosts but rather function as obedient, deadly worker bees for the Delos company. In this new behind-the-scenes look from Mashable, we can see how these big, white demons were made using old-fashioned practical effects.
While the drone hosts might give off an artificial and mechanical vibe, they’re actually performed by actors in specially made prosthetic suits. According to Justin Raleigh, CEO of FracturedFX, the process for making one of these costumes takes “on average about 14 to 16 weeks” and requires the actor to get a silicone impression of their head. The result is an incredibly form-fitting suit, under which the actors have to wear a corset to give their bodies that subtly inhuman silhouette.
All that meticulous crafting certainly paid off, giving the finished product an undeniably striking presence on screen, as if they walked right off the pages of H.R. Giger’s sketchbook. How much more neck-snapping screen time these ivory golems will get this season remains to be seen, but we hope it’s a lot.
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