Will Poulter's transformation into Adam Warlock for 'Guardians 3' required gold paint, colored contacts, and about 2.5 hours in the hair and makeup chair

• Will Poulter spoke to Insider about his transformation into Adam Warlock for the MCU.
• Poulter's skin and hair were colored gold and he wore colored contacts for his "Guardians" role.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" star Will Poulter's head-to-toe transformation into a golden, god-like being took about two and a half hours.

"What you see on screen is something that was made in a collaborative spirit," Poulter, who made his debut as Adam Warlock in James Gunn's "Vol. 3," told Insider recently.

After being teased in the end-credits scene of 2017's "Vol. 2," fans finally see the comic-book character brought to life on the big screen in the third film of the "Guardians" trilogy.

Poulter said that visually, the goal was to capture "the spirit of what Adam Warlock is in the comic books and how he best fits in, in the context of this film, in comparison to everybody else."

As part of his role as the character, who was created in a cocoon with the intention of destroying the titular Guardians, Poulter's skin was painted gold, his hair was shaded similarly, and he wore colored contacts.

"Our visual effects makeup team was just so talented," he said, explaining that the whole process took approximately two and a half hours.

"I was wearing contacts too for a lot of the scenes and an immense amount of research and artistry went into creating the character," the actor added, "and I just sat in the chair."

In creating Poulter's look for the latest film as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the team took inspiration from Adam's comic-book look, down to the yellow gem on his forehead, which is the Soul Stone in the source material.

"We tried a lot of different colors of gems," Poulter explained. "We had like, a chocolate box of all these different gems and we ended up choosing that one, which I think is quite a gold one. I think it's a matte gold."

Prior to the release of "Vol. 3," the actor recalled being impressed by Marvel fans dressing up as his character at the LA premiere.

"I've been fortunate enough to see some pretty incredible cosplay iterations of it," Poulter said. "And seeing folks really kind of nail it, it must make the team really proud. It certainly makes me smile."

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is now playing in theaters.