Every superhero needs one crucial item, and that is a costume. In Disney+’s latest Marvel Studios original series Moon Knight features, the show’s titular hero has not one but two outfits.
Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight stars Oscar Isaac. The latter puts on one hell of a performance with the help of his actual brother to play Steven Grant, a bumbling museum employee man from dissociative identity order. Steven quickly learns that the blackouts or lapses in time are just his other identity, Marc Spector taking over. The former mercenary, who also just happened to make a deal with an Egyptian god named Khonshu, grants Steven the ability to summon his powers and don the Moon Knight costume.
If you have been watching the show as we have, you would know that both Marc and Steven take on different versions of Marvel’s anti-hero. When Marc summons Khonshu’s power, he becomes Moon Knight. However, when Steven calls on those same powers, he becomes Mr. Knight. Both versions of the hero have the same abilities, like invulnerability and super strength but look completely different in design. Moon Knight is a more traditional superhero costume, all white in design, featuring a cape and hood with gold crescent blades that he can pull from his chest, while Marc’s rugged personality stays in control.
Source: Marvel Studios / Moon Knight
Mr. Knight is Steven’s version of the antihero who also has invulnerability and super strength. Instead of rocking a cape, he dons a dapper all-white suit with white gloves, a ski mask, and Steven’s personality.
Source: Disney+/Marvel Studios / Moon Knight
Cassius Life had the opportunity to speak with Moon Knight’s lead Emmy-nominated costume designer Meghan Kasperlik. We talked about her work on the two fantastic costumes asking her which one of them was her favorite. Kasperlik, who is no stranger to bringing your favorite superhero costumes from pages of the comics to movie and television screens, also worked on Amazing Spider-Man 2 alongside Deborah Lynn Scott and HBO’s Watchmen and explained how that helped in designing Moon Knight’s costumes.
Source: Stefanie Keenan / Getty
Cassius Life: Moon Knight is already different because the titular character has not one but two costumes. What was the process that went into designing the costumes, bringing them from paper to life?
Meghan Kasperlik: So Marvel has a team that kind of works in developing this before the costume designer jumps on. So it was great. There was kind of like a little preset before happening. So when I got on it, it was like, “All right. We need to tweak this. Let’s adjust a few things.” And then it was starting. We had to start to fabricate. So we pretty much created our own fabric for the Moon Knight costume because I wanted the costume to be fully functional and be able to do the action and the moves and the kicks and everything. So we 3D printed on top of the fabric different patterns. And then all of that was cut into the different pattern pieces and strips. So there’s like a total of 803 pieces that went into this suit to create it, and different colors and dye fabrics and printed. And so, there’s a lot that went into that one.
Source: Disney+/Marvel Studios / Moon Knight
As I was building it, there was… In the Spider-Man suit, you know, couldn’t go to the bathroom. So I was very adamant that the Moon Knight suit was multiple pieces, so we didn’t have an issue with that. But also just the functionality of things. So I’ve done a couple of different suits on different jobs.
CL: Wow. That’s amazing. Oscar already had high praise for you about the suit and bringing it because it’s fully functional; he can move and fight in it. Now, if you had to choose which one of the suits was your favorite between Mr. Knight and Moon Knight, which one would be your favorite?
MK: I cannot choose. That’s like choosing a child. I like both. I was very scared of the Mr. Knight costume when I came onto the project, and I was like, “Oh, I need to make a white three-piece suit. How am I going to do this?” But it was just so well done. I had an in-house team of tailors in Budapest that made it, and they are like complete bespoke geniuses. They made this thing perfect every time. And we had 47 of them because of the dirt and stunting, and like all of that happened. So they made it perfect every time. So I couldn’t have asked for more. But the Moon Knight costume is also so special because it’s so different from a lot of other suits. So it was pretty phenomenal.
Source: Marvel Studios / Moon Knight
I was very scared of the Mr. Knight costume when I came onto the project, and I was like, “Oh, I need to make a white three-piece suit. How am I going to do this?” But it was just so well done. I had an in-house team of tailors in Budapest that made it, and they are like complete bespoke geniuses. They made this thing perfect every time. And we had 47 of them because of the dirt and stunting, and like all of that happened.
CL: Awesome. Mr. Knight’s is my favorite. I really like that costume a lot. If you could spare one, I’d wear one at Comic-Con gladly, proudly too. Moon Knight is not your first foray into the world of superheroes and costume design. You actually worked alongside Deborah Lynn Scott on the Amazing Spider-Man 2. And I wondered if you take anything from those other projects and use them when designing the Moon Knight costumes?
MK: Oh, absolutely. I think the way that the technique and the different steps that each costume takes to build, you take that into consideration, and also what worked on a suit and what didn’t work on a suit. As I was building it, there was… In the Spider-Man suit, you know, couldn’t go to the bathroom. So I was very adamant that the Moon Knight suit was multiple pieces, so we didn’t have an issue with that. But also just the functionality of things. So I’ve done a couple of different suits on different jobs. And it was just about making sure I take the challenges of the other ones and incorporate it to make it seamless on this one.
You can catch new episodes of Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight every Wednesday on Disney+.
Photos: Getty/ Marvel Studios
EXCLUSIVE: Costume Designer Meghan Kasperlik Reveals What Made Moon Knight’s On-Screen Superhero Drip Better Than Spider-Man’s was originally published on cassiuslife.com
