Ray Chan, the artwork director and manufacturing designer for Marvel Studios who contributed to Guardians of the Galaxy, three Avengers films, the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine and extra, has died. He was 56.

Chan died Tuesday close to his house in Wales, his household introduced. No reason for dying was divulged.

“Ray really was top-of-the-line, in so some ways,” they mentioned. “He had an exuberance for all times, which was tragically reduce brief and can be sorely missed. He cherished his profession and lived a wealthy and great life, and his reminiscence will dwell on by way of all these he knew and the movies he helped make occur.”

Chan served as supervising artwork director on Thor: The Darkish World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Physician Unusual (2016) and the Avengers movies Age of Ultron (2015), Infinity Battle (2018) and Endgame (2019).

He additionally was an artwork director on Spider-Man: Far From Residence (2019) and manufacturing designer on the 2021 miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves (2023) and Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and hits theaters in July.

“He was as beneficial a inventive pressure on Deadpool & Wolverine because the writers, director and stars,” Reynolds said on social media.

“I don’t faux to know each chapter of Ray’s coronary heart, however I do know it’s uncommon to come across somebody with that stage of artistry who concurrently moved by way of the world with such indelible humanity.

“He constructed worlds from scratch — and did so in probably the most collaborative and inclusive methods. Ray was peerless. He’ll be missed by so many, however most of all by his household. 

“The final time I noticed Ray was precisely two weeks in the past. One in every of [the] final issues I mentioned to him was that he makes magic, and there’s no person on Earth like him. He and I might additionally give one another lots of good-natured shit. So … of all of the final issues you might say to somebody you like, that’s a bit of scrap of comfort I’ll cling onto perpetually.”

Mentioned Levy: “Ray did greater than design the world of our film; he lit up the world round him. Actually, anybody who knew Ray, or was fortunate sufficient to collaborate with him as we have been, skilled this beacon of a person: sort, heat, tenaciously devoted and relentlessly inspiring — Ray labored and lived with a joyous and contagious humanity that’s uncommon.”

The oldest of three youngsters of Hong Kong immigrants, Raymond Chan was born on Dec. 1, 1967, in Oldham, Better Manchester. His mom was a machinist and his father a bus driver. He graduated with a graphic design diploma from the Liverpool College of Artwork, then moved to London to affix the brand new movie and tv M.A. postgraduate program at Kingston Artwork Faculty.

After commencement and work as a butcher, Chan served as an artwork division assistant on The Secret Rapture (1993), then was a senior draughtsman on Hackers (1995). He went on to work on different movies together with Johnny English (2003), Nationwide Treasure (2004), Alien vs. Predator (2004), Youngsters of Males (2006), Flyboys (2006), Knight and Day (2010) and Robin Hood (2010).

Chan collaborated with manufacturing designer Charles Wooden on six Marvel movies and 10 films in all.

“Every movie that Marvel [puts out], it’s all the time a really concerned course of, for myself and Charlie, each is exclusive and a problem,” Chan mentioned in a 2018 interview with The Credit. “Guardians of the Galaxy is completely different to Ultron, which is completely different to Dr. Unusual.

“Infinity Wars was most likely the largest problem. It comes off as a collaboration, working with an important studio like Marvel. There are nice scriptwriters, administrators, they convey so much to the desk. They’d provide you with concepts, first, and we’d bounce off that.”

In an announcement to The Hollywood Reporter, Wooden known as Chan “an unimaginable expertise, a superb designer, a real artist and an inspiring and steadfast chief. Ray was stuffed with the best kindness, unending generosity and implausible humor; he had probably the most extraordinary vitality and was so deeply treasured by everybody who met him.”

“From Xandar to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Ray introduced distinct, lived-in worlds to the display screen, spanning the far reaches of house to a Louisiana fishing boat,” Marvel mentioned. “He was additionally an exquisite buddy and colleague.”

Chan shared excellence in manufacturing design awards from the Artwork Administrators Guild in 2015 and 2020 for Guardians of the Galaxy and Endgame, respectively.

Survivors embrace his spouse, Lindsay; his sons, Caspar and Sebastian; and his daughter-in-law, Danielle.

“If not occupied with household or movie,” they mentioned, “Ray would almost definitely have his thoughts set on one of many three issues, every of which, in one other life, Ray would have excelled in: meals, for Ray dearly cherished to prepare dinner for household and pals and was a first-rate chef and benevolent host; vehicles, be it his beloved Vary Rover P38, the mechanics of a Jeep’s engine or Method One; his backyard, at his home in Cowbridge, Wales, which he deliberate together with his typical design aptitude. A lover of traditional movie, Ray additionally, maybe surprisingly, cherished musicals, with The Sound of Music being a agency favourite.”

Any tales or recollections of Chan could be left right here. Donations in his reminiscence could be made to the Stroke Affiliation.