Bringing the DC Universe to life involves more than what’s written in a script or orchestrated by a brilliant mind behind a camera. The world itself is carefully crafted by production designers, whether that’s creating the perfect set, or devising a fantastical contraption from scratch.
Kalina Ivanov is one of those experts, having worked on Colin Farrell’s 2024’s The Penguin (for which she was nominated for an Emmy), and season 2 of Peacemaker with John Cena, which was released earlier this year. Prior to being recruited into the superhero universe, Kalina worked on the likes of Lovecraft Country, Little Miss Sunshine and Uptown Girls, and got her start as a storyboard artist on Silence of the Lambs.
Production design on a DC show comes with its own unique parameters, as it has to cater to the eagle-eyed fans out there.
Seeding plot teasers in Peacemaker season 2
Even if you didn’t manage to catch Peacemaker season 2, you’ll have likely seen the iconic dance opening set to Foxy Shazam’s ‘Oh Lord’, an introduction that had to follow in the footsteps of season 1’s routine set to WigWam’s ‘Do Ya Wanna Taste It’. Kalina played a big role in the final visuals of the season 2 intro credits, which took a simple floor space and added drama with neon lights at the back.
“That set took forever”, she laughs, as James Gunn (someone she admits she couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work with) was focused on Superman at the time, so the design concepts were only finalised a few weeks prior to shooting. The result was simple, but effective.
“He had the colours of the alternate universe… The choreographer had an input; she needed a simple wing and drop set you know, the simplest ballet set… And the back wall was a wall of electronic, basically, screens. And everything was programmed into it. So, the sequence was programmed into the dancing.”
As Peacemaker was confirmed to explore alternate universes, the online world was rife with speculation each week from fans about which world Gunn was pulling from. Many correctly identified Earth-X, a nightmare Nazi-inspired dystopia where WW2 ended very differently and as such, white supremacy ruled freely.
While clues to the universe were hidden throughout the sets, some fans believed that the lights in the opening also contained hints – with one post seemingly highlighting SS Bolts mapped out on the screens at the back. I brought this up with Kalina to see if that were the case, and I’m afraid to say that fans may have been reaching on this one:
“No!” she laughs, “Oh god, yeah – we’re really thinking only about alternate universe… those are the colours of the quantum chamber.”
On the set of the A.R.G.U.S building however, things were a little more obvious. Kalina placed a mural of Hitler in front of the White House on the wall, something that the actors were constantly aware of, despite it not being revealed on camera until much later in the show: “We went to great lengths of masking it. So, it was there, but it wasn’t there. We had plants in front of it. You can probably catch it. But not quite register it until it’s revealed.
“And James was very careful about that. He was very afraid that the extras were going to give up the truth about the alternate universe!”
Gunn was generally pretty tight about hiding spoilers, as Kalina had scripts for nearly every episode in full, bar episode eight which was mostly blacked out. He was also particular about details, especially in the house of The Top Trio. “All the articles there were written, and so we had to produce them, and the key to the city was written in it.”
He also put in specific requests for certain band posters, with a twist to indicate differences in this world. For example, Def Leppard purposefully being spelt D-E-A-F, and ‘sugar’ being replaced with ‘honey’ for the iconic song, ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’. That comes as no surprise, given Chris Smith’s connection to rock music in the show.
Peacemaker took inspiration from a Marvel legend
As well as murals and sets, Kalina also took the lead on several original props in the show – one being Chris’s iconic personal vehicle.
Gunn had a strong vision for this design and went back to his MCU roots when giving Kalina her brief: “He said, ‘Captain America. Look at Captain America in the 70s… Just capture the spirit.’ So… with Pat, the storyboard artist Pat Presley, we developed a new Peace-Cycle.”
The CapCycle shares the same chunky design and prominent character motifs throughout. However, Chris’s has guns integrated on his motorbike.
Kalina Ivanov/HBO Max
Kalina’s work on the Peace-Cycle is proof that practical elements still have a place in Hollywood, despite the fact that many studios opt for green screens and CGI where they can. Marvel is notorious for it, especially in its Disney+ series. That said, filming spoilers from Spider-Man: Brand New Day show a promising return to classic stunts and on-location filming.
Kalina also designed the killing machine that alternate Chris is impaled on in the quantum chamber – and even had some competition during the production process. “I challenged my art director… I said, ‘OK, you try it and I’ll try it and we’ll see who wins.’ And needless to say, I produced it before he did.”
Other practical sets on Peacemaker include the Candyland world – though special effects brought those terrifying little imps to life.
Production design on Peacemaker vs The Penguin
Despite both following morally dubious characters, The Penguin and Peacemaker required very different approaches from a production design perspective: “The Penguin was very realistic, but elevated… And it took place in the city… but it was New York like we’ve never seen.”
“Peacemaker is a comedy, you know, and I approached it as a comedy in that way, and it took place in the suburbia in Washington State.”
This visual dichotomy is clear in the locations chosen for each show. The Penguin continues Matt Reeve’s gritty and messy take on Gotham, where poor and rich neighbourhoods clash with one another. It stood out so much because of its true reflection of reality, as Kalina explains: “When you say New York, people think Manhattan.
“But we only had one scene in Manhattan – everything else was in the boroughs in Yonkers, in The Bronx, in Queens, and that’s where you have the streets that come on an angle at each other… everything there was a jumble.”
You can see more about the neighbourhoods chosen for The Penguin in her interview with Architectural Digest.
The palette is also moody and dark, something set up in The Batman. Kalina did explain that the colour gold was prominent throughout, symbolising the desire for riches and greed within the show – though these tones were often just out of reach for Oz. “When he’s in his apartment, it’s silver. It’s silver drawers… a silver vault… because he isn’t there yet. He hasn’t gotten to gold.”
Kalina Ivanov/HBO Max
Meanwhile, Peacemaker takes place in Gunn’s new DC Universe, which is filled with bright (often obnoxiously so) colours established by Superman. Kalina discusses how those tones influenced the mural of The Top Trio, which eventually became the inspiration for the main poster for season 2. “I looked into the pop art, mostly in American pop art, like Roy Lichtenstein.”
Peacemaker and The Penguin were released fairly close together, but (at the time of writing, at least) they’re considered to be two separate DC universes, so having wildly different visual representation can help fans distinguish between the two – and it helps that Kalina has first-hand experience with both.
But these two shows are just a taste of the work she’s been doing: “I just finished a movie two weeks ago… there have been two things offered to me.”
Whether they’re DC projects or not, she couldn’t share. But next year will see the release of the movie Supergirl and the TV series Clayface, so I advise keeping a close eye on the sets going forward – you never know what you may spot thanks to the work of creatives such as Kalina.
You can watch both The Penguin and Peacemaker now on HBO/HBO Max in the US and Sky/Now in the UK – though HBO Max is set to launch in the UK early next year.
