No Capes, No Gloss, No Problem: How Costume Designer Cynthia Ann Summers Grounded “Lanterns”
Cynthia Ann Summers was the right woman for the job of designing a series set in DC’s superhero realm that, in tone and tenor, feels closer to True Detective than you’d think possible for a story that involves magical rings and nefarious aliens. Yet that’s precisely what she’s pulled off in Lanterns, Damon Lindelof, Chris Mundy, and Tom King’s superb new series that’s centered on two mismatched members of the Green Lantern Corps, the newcomer and trainee John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and his combative, surly mentor, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). Pierre and Chandler are a winning pair as the bickering good guys at the center of a mystery they’re each intent on solving. While technically they’re intergalactic cops tasked with safeguarding Earth from interstellar threats, thanks to Jordan’s constant rule-breaking, they find themselves at the center of a mystery in Rushville, Nebraska, where a local sheriff (Kerry Macdonald) tries to keep order and a mysterious militant cowboy (Garret Dillahunt) has access to technology that seems way beyond what should reasonably be available in the heartland.
Summers’ job was to keep all of these folks dressed as you’d expect to find people, whether in a Nebraskan diner or at a Friday night football game. That’s true even when Jordan dons his super suit, which doesn’t have the form-fitting, synthetically muscled silhouette you usually associate with superhero costumes. There’s nothing flashy about his battle armor; it’s beaten up and clearly has miles of wear and tear, like almost every other costume Summers and her team crafted for Lanterns, which was filmed in the heart of Los Angeles.
The costume designer, who previously worked on The Last of Us and A Series of Unfortunate Events, recently told The Credits about the art behind crafting believable superheroes and the thrill of working with a local crew on the Warner Bros. lot.
When you have a two-hander like this show, how do you want their costumes to complement or contrast each other?
You want them to harmonize in a way because they’re always together. We wanted to make sure their costumes reflected the characters in the comic and fit the look of who was cast, while also complementing each other and still being different. When you look at them, obviously Hal is very disheveled, from his hair to his cowboy boots and the Double RL jacket. It was a beautiful jacket when it began its life on our show, but then we just trashed it to look a little bit oversized, a little bit ill-fitting, a little bit like he really doesn’t give a sh*t.
On the other hand, John Stewart is buttoned up.
Aaron has a superhero body to begin with, so he just walks in and you put anything on him and he’s just a superhero body. But his character, obviously, was raised in a military style, with intention his entire life. So his costume, although it felt easy, had cleaner lines. Everything fit better, even to the cuff of his sleeve and the cut of his jacket. His pants were better fitting, and they were a perfect length, almost a military length, if you will. And then his boots reflected the military boot.
The bomber jacket, too, looks really good on him.
The bomber’s awesome. Both of them come from military backgrounds, and bomber jackets live across the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The tricky part was getting jackets that reflected their past, in a sense, but didn’t look exactly the same. The silhouettes had different proportions, both width-wise and lengthwise.
Who was on your moodboard for Hal Jordan?
I came across this image of Anthony Bourdain, rest his soul, and it looks like he was sitting in a little Mexican adobe hole-in-the-wall where he was maybe tasting food. Everything about that photo of Bourdain was exactly what I thought would translate to Kyle, to Hal. Anthony’s sitting in a chair, and he’s kind of schlepped in. He’s got his arm over the back, he’s got his legs crossed one over, and he’s got a beer on the table, and he’s chatting with someone across the table. He had on a jacket very similar to the Double RL jacket we got for Hal, very similar. I kind of went with the color tone. Hal’s outfit really very much speaks to what Bourdain was wearing in that. It was also where we first picked up the idea of cowboy boots for Hal.
For John Stewart, were there any unlikely influences or references for him?
I had Mahershala Ali on my mood board from True Detective. It was a little too period for us, but again, it was the silhouette and the tone. He’s also younger, so we wanted to see the age difference. You just wanted to play it. We actually started with cargo pants at the very beginning of our first fitting and went with that blue jacket. The colors were definitely taken from the comic and worked in contrast with Kyle’s look, with his color tone, which was very dusty beige, jeans, et cetera. We wanted John to feel a little more put together, which is why we didn’t go with jeans. He’s wearing an industrial chino, if you will.
Any images from the comics on your moodboard?
There was one illustration from the comic. He’s got a white T-shirt on; he may have had jeans on, but everything he was wearing felt very tailored, as it does in the comic. Tailored, close, and tight. He’s tight because his character’s really tight.
With the showrunners, how much did you discuss streetwear, and how much green did you use?
There was a lot of discussion over that, and it ebbed and flowed throughout production. We started off so earthy, intentionally, to set the tone, place, and decade we were in, et cetera. We were very careful with green because we knew that a lot of visual effects were going to involve green. There’s going to be green in suits; there’s going to be green existing a lot from the Lanterns, the universe side, the lore, the canon of the Lanterns. We were careful. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have anybody in green, maybe khaki along the way.
Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern suit is great. It has this battered texture to it. How important was damaging the suit?
That was really important. When we first see the suit on him in the newscast in ’96, when he reveals himself, the suit is definitely a little more green there, and it’s not as battle-worn. We jump to 2016, where we actually see the suit in its entirety and a lot more of it. It’s definitely battle-worn. It makes sense because I think his character all along is kind of a devil-may-care character. He’s not the guy who’s going home and polishing up his suit and spit-shining his boots or anything.
There’s a vulnerability to the suit, which you don’t always get with superhero costumes.
I mean, there’s a bullet hole, and there’s a gash, and it almost looks like the armor has lost layers. You can sort of see different tones. It’s grimy, for sure, and has lost its sheen.
Out of respect for spoilers, there are some costumes we can’t talk about, but we can talk about how great LA crews are, right? What did you really appreciate about shooting a show of this scale in Los Angeles?
It was amazing to be shooting at Warner Bros. The DC of everything was around us, and I found it really inspirational. The lot was pretty quiet when we were there and when we first started, and then it sort of built up, and then other shows happened, and the lot really perked up, and there was a lot of crew.
That’s great to hear.
It was really heartwarming. I’m getting chills when I talk about it. It sort of brought hope, and it propped us up, I think, because our show was very, very busy. It was quite a big road show as well, too. We were all over the place, and it was wonderful to be shooting here and on location. Everybody’s happy to be working, and it was a long shoot, so we were able to support everybody for quite some time. It was a really long prep.
But you had the right LA team for it.
We had the best production team, and I’m not just saying that. Especially a show like this where there’s a lot riding on it. It’s another big DC moment. There’s James Gunn and Peter Safran and everybody, and everybody’s got their eyes on it. Also, it’s been given a little bit of, “It’s your guys’ show. You guys go do that, but we’re going to be watching,” kind of thing. There was a lot riding on it. So, having an amazing producing team right now, and being in L.A., is super important.
Lanterns is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes every Sunday at 8 p.m. E.T.
Featured image: Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
