Wētā Workshop builds an army for Disney live-action epic, Mulan

Five-time Academy Award-winning concept design and manufacturing facility Wētā Workshop has revealed the vast array of weapons and armour it manufactured for Disney’s new live-action epic Mulan.

Based in Wellington, New Zealand, the workshop crafted more than 4,000 weapons and 300 suits of armour, making Mulan the largest armour and weapons manufacturing job undertaken by the company since The Hobbit trilogies.

Film director and fellow New Zealander Niki Caro has reimagined the story of Mulan, a legendary female warrior in China, who disguises herself as a man and takes her elderly father’s place in the army.

Wētā Workshop Co-founder and Creative Director Richard Taylor says the team were delighted to work on such a beautiful film.

Richard continues, “This project was creatively inspiring, richly textured and minutely detailed — and for our team at the Workshop these are the components that make a hugely rewarding project.” 

Almost all of Wētā Workshop’s 17 manufacturing departments worked on the project collaboratively. The costume department, led by Alistair McDougall, first conducted research into ancient Chinese methods of making armour. Then the team replicated these methods — both by hand and by developing more time-efficient techniques, using modern technologies.

The manufacture division at Wētā Workshop was able to mass-produce many of the weapons at speed, whilst maintaining their durability, high surface quality and authentic look, with the development of a moulding and casting technique new to Wētā Workshop. Head of Manufacture Rob Gillies says the crew came up with a new injection-moulding technique, which meant an entire sword or spear could be made out of a one-shot mould, rather than multiple parts.

“The injection-moulding technique really sped up the manufacturing process. This was a research and development project we were mid-way through before the film and it needed to ramp up significantly. We made dozens of prototypes and took each one outside to test their strength, literally thrashing them against a wall or simulating action scenes. Once we’d finished making the armour, our crew then went on set to make sure every costume, sword, spear, suit, arrow, dagger or helmet looked and worked as it should for the directed scenes.”

— Rob Gillies, Head of Manufacture, Wētā Workshop

In the film, Mulan dons her father’s armour to look like a man whilst enlisting in the army. This armour was entirely handmade by Wētā Workshop’s specialist leather worker Darin Gordine, who worked closely with the film’s lead Costume Designer, Bina Daigeler. Darin created four versions of the suit of armour to allow for the vigorous action sequences on set. Each suit had over 1,300 individual leather plates laced together, then decorated with many intricate metal fixtures.

Wētā Workshop built 47 different types of weapons for Mulan, including swords, spears, daggers, sheaths, quivers, bows and arrows. In total it produced 2,000 Chinese weapons, 1,500 tribesman weapons and 2,000 individual arrows.

The company’s master swordsmith Peter Lyon created the steel swords used by Mulan in several key scenes.

Disney’s Mulan reimagines an animated classic with incredible stunt work, beautiful scenery and authentic-looking armour and weapons. Mulan is available to watch on Disney+.

Crewmember Ana Wang poses in Mulan’s father’s armour, alongside the maker Darin Gordine.