Moon Knight, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor season one are now all available on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, and the commemorate the occasion, we recently caught up with 3x Primetime Emmy-nominated costume designer Meghan Kasperlik (Moon Knight; Watchmen; Mare of Easttown) to talk about her incredible work on Moon Knight
Kasperlike, who earned an Emmy nomination for her work on the Marvel Studios series, was kind enough to break down the intricate process behind creating Oscar Isaac's now-iconic super suit, as well as crafting unique costumes for Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.
She also talks to me about her inspiration behind designing the costumes for the Scarlet Scarab and Arthur Harrow, and a whole lot more!
Watch our full interview with Primetime Emmy-nominated costume designer Meghan Kasperlik below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcript! Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: You did such an incredible job on Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight suit - what was your inspiration when designing that costume?
MEGHAN: So, I worked very closely with the Marvel visual development department, because they started before I did, and it was great, because there were concepts that were already in the works, but the director, Mohamed Diab, he wanted to bring in the kind of Egyptian bandage element to it. And then for me, I wanted to make sure that we were doing that, in a modern way, and not to look too much like a mummy. Also, making sure that the color wasn't flat. So, there's five layers of like 3D print and sublimation on the fabric before it is patterned and cut up, then kind of pieced back together, and then, it's just a lot of minor details. So, it was really cool to be able to add all of those details into the suit and really, you know, make it more interesting, and not just make it like a flat color and really bring it into the Egyptian world, but in a modern way.
ROHAN: Since the suit isn't like other MCU suits and is actually a part of Oscar's character, basically like a second skin - what did you use to make the costume? And to make it something practical that he could perform in?
MEGHAN: Yeah, so I can talk more about the building of the suit, in a sense of I always want to make sure that whatever actor is wearing that, whether it has to be from that person, or they put it on or whatnot, I want to make sure that it feels like a second skin. So, I watched a lot of the stunt rehearsal to see the moves that they're going to do because this specific suit, like Oscar and the stunt people were always wearing it, there's only like two scenes that there's additional enhancement for that, so they can fully move and do the stunts and do the physicality, and then also, with the process of the fabric, it's a Euro jersey, which is kind of like this stretch that all the superhero suits are usually made out of, but I wanted to make sure that it had interesting pattern details and design lines, but also like, that's where we incorporated also having the fabric, have all the layers. That's kind of what took the longest is like figuring out what each pattern piece had printed on it and what Easter eggs to incorporate with the hieroglyphics and different details, and then also, I took, almost like an ace bandage, they're the bandage that you'd have that's the fabric and it has the little hash marks in it, like the weave and how it's separated, and I incorporated that into the fabric, in a modern way, with the 3D print so that they had extra texture and dimension and it just wouldn't go flat. And then, at the end, there were like 800 pattern pieces and fabric pieces put together, so it was a very big build of a suit, but it had, I think, such a strong impact.
ROHAN: With Oscar Isaac playing Marc Spector, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley - what was the process behind designing their individual civilian looks and collaborating with Oscar to bring the characters to life?
MEGHAN: So, I kind of had visions for each character, and then absolutely, I collaborated with Oscar and had long discussions. So, for Steven Grant, this character lives in Brixton, the area of London and I wanted it to be like, that's a cool area, but he couldn't be too cool. So, he's fitting in and kind of walking through his environment without being noticed. So, if he looked super nerdy, he wouldn't fit into that environment. So like how could Steven even just pass? How could he just get by without really being noticed, but also like, blending into the cool factor?
So, he has a chore jacket, but with his pants, I wanted them to be a little cropped, and then also, you could see his sock, and there are details to the sock, but then, it was a heavier shoe, so it had a little weight to it, and it really brought the character down. I worked very closely with Oscar to really get those details right, and, in the fitting, he definitely adjusted his posture. So, I knew we were getting there with the character, cause you see the transformation happening in the fitting room.
For Mark Spector, obviously this person is ex-military and is really a killer. So, basically, when I talked to Oscar, he's like, oh, I have this contact who’s Special Ops, so you should talk to him about what people wear, and the interesting detail of that is that people who are trying to blend in, they don't wear black, they wear navy or charcoal or brown, so it was very important that this character was not wearing anything black, because then he would stand out. So, I didn't want him to stand out in a way, we wanted him to blend into the environment.
Then, when doing Jake Lockley, I just really took inspiration from the comic book, because we're only going to see him for just a quick moment. I wanted everyone to know who that character was. So, it took a very similar silhouette and modernized the jacket with a raw denim, and just so that you would be really like, okay, we know who this person is.
ROHAN: Since the show's Scarlet Scarab is different than the comics, where did the inspiration for Layla's awesome costume come from?
MEGHAN: Yeah, I did a tremendous amount of research in Egyptian culture from over the years, thousands of years ago, the tombs, just different aspects of that and then, also how Egypt has evolved and the revolution and the modernized woman, so that was very much incorporated into Layla and then, into the suit.
So, for the Scarlet Scarab costume, because it was so different from the comic, I wanted to make sure that we incorporated the Egyptian details, so there's like a scarlet scare up here, there's a print on the leggings that she wears that is like this little teeny design that I found in a tomb from how many years ago in a book that I incorporated that little almost like flowerette into the legging and then, we 3D printed on top of that, the arms and the vambraces and then, the arms that have like Scarlet Scarabs in them.
Then, also incorporating the color palette and I wanted to make sure - like so many superhero costumes are super vibrant and I wanted this to look like it was in a tomb, like it was aged, just like how paintings have been aged on the walls of the tombs and working with the production designer to look at how that tomb was being painted, so we can incorporate those colors into the Scarlet Scarab costume. So, it was really about it not looking fresh, like this came from an old world.
ROHAN: The show's villain Arthur Harrow has a very unique cult leader look, how did you approach that character?
MEGHAN: I wanted to make sure that he had something kind of odd about his character. So, in researching cult leaders and religious figures, there's always something, like they have an odd pair of glasses or there's like a weird haircut or they have a mullet or there's like a watch or a welter or a staff or there's something interesting about this character.
So, I talked to Ethan in detail and I liked the idea of having the odd item, which was the shoes. I wanted the sandal to be heavy and him to kind of clunk around in it and we talked about religious figures and we were talking about monks and how they can walk into the room and the peace of that and then, I liked the color, the kind of amber color of the reds - and I'm sorry, the maroons - and the oranges that monks wear, so we’re incorporating that into it, kind of like this ambry tone that then was washed out, so it looked like it had been like worn a lot, so those little details were all thought out, to incorporate that into a figure that you notice and has power, but also is not someone who comes across as the villain or comes across as the person who's like going to harm them.
ROHAN: From the time you get the concept art, what's the sort of turnaround time between taking the concepts you're getting and creating the costumes?
MEGHAN: We use concept art to start out, so everyone is kind of on the same page of what the character is going to look like and the kind of general concept of what you're thinking. So, that was like a few months long process with Marvel, Mohamed - and we filmed in Budapest, but I was filming something else, I was finishing something in Philadelphia. So, I started in Philadelphia, had a couple of months there, then I went to Budapest, the concepts were in the works there. So, I probably started my first fittings in February. I had done the concepts for a few months, and you really start with Oscar and Ethan in May, the main characters, and, in that time, I'm doing the contemporary and the Super Suits. I'm doing all of that at the same time, so it's just like, really, the trial and error process was longer for the Moon Knight suit, because we had to go through a lot of variations of that, and we filmed that sooner than we filmed the Scarlet Scarab costume, so it was just about - each one had its own process of going through, but you do develop it for a few months in Marvel world before you go into start making things.
ROHAN: Having worked on Watchmen prior to working on this show, how did that experience inform your approach on Moon Knight?
MEGHAN: Well, I definitely learned how to make hoods, the pull-up hoods, so that was something that was very easy for me, in the sense that everyone was very concerned about the placement of how the point was going to come down. And that was like the least of my worries for all of it, just because having done that on Watchmen and making sure the Sister Knight’s hood was sitting in a certain way. And I learned a lot from that about how the action is going to play and how the suits are going to work out in stunt action and how we can change things using leather another versus not using leather, or just the different fabrications. I did a lot more 3D printing of fabrics on Moon Knight than what was done on Watchmen. So, that was really cool to develop that, but each job you learn things about like what works and what doesn't, but I was able because of my knowledge from Watchmen, I was able to use a lot of that on Moon Knight.
When Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life, he discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Moon Knight and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are now available on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray!