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Marvel Studios' Moon Knight introduced
not only Moon Knight, but also Mr. Knight, into the MCU.
So I'm talking with two of the guys who designed
these incredible characters, Ryan Meinerding
and Rodney Fuentebella.
Good to see you guys.
All right, let's get into it.
Moon Knight and Mr. Knight are two dynamic characters who,
of course, share a common bond.
And so I've got to ask the two of you.
How did you approach creating these characters in tandem?
Since we were going to have Moon Knight and Mr. Knight,
we were trying to figure out what would be the best contrast
to have between them, if they both share that sort
of crisp white look to them.
Both Moon Knight and Mr. Knight
have the sense of history that they're encompassing the powers
of Khonshu, who's been around for centuries,
and taking that in.
To look at those two costumes together and compare
and contrast them, each of the personalities
is coming out in its own distinct way was
really the fun of this project.
The duality of those personalities
is one of the coolest parts about the project.
So where did you first start to find
inspiration for these looks?
We really always start with the comics, right?
We go back and look at different runs of the comics,
different artists that have executed brilliant designs
and brilliant illustrations.
For me, I always loved Stephen Platt's Moon Knight.
And I love Bill Sienkiewicz's Moon Knight.
It becomes such a fun part of the process
to look at what all these amazing artists have put
together that we can use as reference
to try and execute what the filmmakers are trying to do.
We wanted to make sure that there is a sense of, what we
are doing in the show is something that is also seen
and you could say like, oh, this is
a great interpretation of what has been seen in the comics.
It looks amazing.
Ryan, what was the design process like for Moon Knight?
The characteristics that we were most specifically trying
to highlight in the Moon Knight suit
were trying to get something that feels like he's
a warrior or tactical or mixing those two things together,
something that feels Egyptian, and something
that feels ancient.
The mixes that were coming out ended up
feeling maybe a little bit too much like other heroes
because of the tactical.
So we ended up trying to find what
was a replacement for the tactical
that would allow us to get something
that was superhero and Egyptian together.
In the last few iterations we were doing, the idea came up
to make him sort of a linen wrapped armor, essentially,
a set of armor that would have been meant to be
preserved in an ancient tomb.
That idea was born out of, essentially,
Khonshu having a ceremonial set of armor that
somehow existed in market conduit
when he needed to become Moon Knight.
Something that feels inherently Egyptian, mixed
with something that also feels really like a warrior
set of armor.
All of that came together into that Marc Spector look.
Because we so much think of Moon Knight
as being the crescent moon, I also
liked the idea that other phases of the moon were important too.
So that Crescent moon is sitting on top
of like a stone piece that's actually
textured like a full moon as well, which
is not inherently noticeable.
You have to sort of be looking for it.
But they did accomplish it.
And I think it's pretty cool.
Yeah, also pretty cool, Mr. Knight.
Rodney, could you please walk us through the Mr. Knight design?
So Mr Knight is what Steven thinks,
OK, I'll just create a suit for myself.
And he creates a suit that is an amalgamation of what he thinks
a suit is, and the powers that he
is being bestowed by Khonshu.
We took a lot of the inspiration from Egyptian artifacts
and putting that into the textures
and the details of the lapel.
And we wanted to make sure that he felt of something that's
not just a person in a suit, but something that
felt like a superhero as well.
The director, Mohamed, he wanted to really
make sure that the look of Mr. Knight
had this sense of duality.
So we played with a lot of different concepts of what that
could be, and incarnations of what his mask could
be in the sense of that split, and whether it's
different textures that we were playing around with.
We ended up with that C that goes
down the middle of his face.
I love details like that.
These characters are amazing.
What's it like for the two of you
to see them now out in the world?
RYAN MEINERDING: The dual component of his personality
that each one of those visuals plays off
each other is such an interesting setup
and pay off in the series.
And it's real honor to have worked on it.
And it's super fun to think that people are going to have
a whole new hero to enjoy, and hopefully explore, and love
as much as we all do here.
Oh, it's amazing.
It's one of those things where I have to pinch myself.
You spend countless hours working on these projects.
And seeing fans out there enthralled
by what we do as well, it just makes me
feel like, oh, it was worth it.
Totally all worth it.
Ryan, Rodney, thanks so much for spending
time and talking with us.
Everybody out there, go watch Marvel Studios' Moon Knight.
All episodes are now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
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