The ‘Lanterns’ Show Almost Came Without a Suit

With Lanterns premiering tomorrow night on HBO, its cast and creators have been on a press circuit, and co-lead Kyle Chandler revealed an interesting detail about the show.

On the Jimmy Kimmel Live , Chandler told guest host Anthony Anderson that the suit we’ve seen tiny glimpses of here and there just barely made it in. According to him, there was some uncertainty early on about whether there’d be one, but it was later decided “towards the end” that Hal and John could have costumes. (If they didn’t, they’d sure look weirder standing next to Guy Gardner .) Following that approval, he said executive producers Chris Mundy and James Hawes had to pick between three designs, and once that was picked, that’s where he came in.

“I went with the designers and was the mannequin while they applied and created this whole thing in front of me,” recalled Chandler. “I got to watch these artisans do what they do, listen to their vocabulary, and [learn] how to describe what they want.”

By his admission, much of it went over his head—they were “visualizing what they want” out loud, and he’s not that type of creative—but he had nothing but good things to say about the final product, which he said took roughly 45 minutes to put on. “They built something just incredible. […] It’s this beautiful, green, worn-in, battle-scarred suit. I love it.”

One problem, though: like many superhero costumes, there was no way for Chandler to use the bathroom in that thing. And as he had to go on the first day of filming as he was wearing the suit… you see how that went. It was, as he pointed out, the same problem NASA ran into with 1961’s Freedom 7 launch with Alan Shepard.

Bathroom problems aside, Chandler talked up the fun he had working with costar Aaron Pierre and expressed pride in the show. He also recalled convincing a producer on the show to let the cast and crew watch what they’d done so far to get an idea of their progress. Weeks later, the 200-person group got to watch 15 minutes worth of clips on three monitors. “When the lights came back on, there was silence, and then applause,” he said. “We saw a lot of tears of ‘Wow, look what we’ve done.’ It moved everyone to go further.”

Chandler called Lanterns “one of the greatest projects I’ve ever worked on.” And we’ll see how true that is starting this Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .