In 2020, we revealed the vast array of weapons and armour we manufactured for Disney’s new live-action epic Mulan. 

Wētā 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.  

“Mulan really was epic in its vision, scale and complexity. The original animated film was so unique in its beauty and animation style that we knew this live-action adaptation of the story — coupled with it being a Disney project — was going to require an extraordinary level of craft,” says Richard. “We approached it as if we were delivering a large quantity of items on set, akin to stunning artefacts from a historical time.” 

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,” says Rob. “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.”