There’s one character noticeably absent from the Justice League trailer and promotional material: the big bad. We know it’s Steppenwolf, but all we know is who’s playing him, not exactly hot he’ll fit into the plot. We can assume he’s hunting for Mother Boxes, because isn’t everyone these days? Recently, Ciaran Hinds, who’ll be playing the evil alien, gave some clues as to exactly how he played him.

While speaking to The Independent about all the movies he has coming up, Hinds mentioned that he filmed his Steppenwolf scenes for Justice League in a “very tight and embarrassing” motion-capture suit.

Basically they’re going to construct something, digitally, and then they will use my eyes and mouth.

In the comics, Steppenwolf is mostly covered in a big suit of armor, with only his face and goatee visible. Apparently, to prepare for the mo-cap stuff, Hinds asked his buddy Liam Neeson how he’d done it for A Monster Calls, and Neeson went ahead and sent him some pamphlets.

Hinds also discussed how he approached playing the character, and what we should expect from his version of Steppenwolf.

He’s old, tired, still trying to get out of his own enslavement to Darkseid, [but] he has to keep on this line to try and take over worlds.

Steppenwolf is Darkseid’s uncle who becomes one of his army lieutenants. When Darkseid sets his sights on a planet, it’s Steppenwolf’s job to lead his forces into battle. It certainly sounds like Warner Bros. is going to do with Darkseid what Marvel did with Thanos: provide a few films’ worth of lead-up before any of us get to see who’s really pulling the strings.

Justice League hits theaters November 17.

More From ScreenCrush