The fifth and final season of “The Boys” went out in a gloriously bloody and unapologetic bang. Upping the stakes as Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid), and company took one last stand against Homelander (Antony Starr) and his fascist regime, the series dove headfirst into a biblical battle of good versus evil. 

Series five commenced with Butcher, Annie (Erin Moriarty), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) reuniting with Hughie, Mother's Milk (Lazaro Alonso), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) after breaking them out of Freedom Camp 47. Faced with an uphill battle, this rag-tag band of outcasts is at rock bottom when we find them—something that costume designers Michael Ground and Laura Jean Shannon embraced. "For the final season, they started off in such bad shape," Ground says. "So, a huge Easter egg was the Homelander capes on the back of their t-shirts and sweatshirts [in the Freedom Camp]. And then we very quickly rolled into our found clothes world, which was a lot of fun for me, but maybe not as much fun for some of our cast in that fitting room."

In one of season five's most talked about and meme-worthy moments, MM—known for his impeccable collection of hip-hop tees —is forced to don a Britney Spears t-shirt, something that wasn’t originally scripted. "That Britney Spears' t-shirt on Lazaro was originally a placeholder for something," Ground explains. "Originally, there was even a bigger reaction to MM being upset about it," adds Shana Stein, who directed episode two. "But ultimately, in the cut, it was just a look, because the fans immediately know that MM and Britney Spears—it's a moment. You don't have to gild the lily. It says it all there: how low they've all sunk. For MM and for the rest of us, it puts a smile on our faces and it's wonderful to see how much the costumes bring the actors to life."

While Ground takes the reins with civilian clothes, Shannon—the show’s specialty costume designer and associate producer—has been creating and refining the show's endless array of super suits. "It is different because we start designing the superhero costumes before the actors are even cast, especially in the early days," Shannon says. After approval from showrunner Eric Kripke, her designs get passed up the chain to the production studio heads, and then finally, the network. "So, by the time the actors are cast, and I'm able to shift the concept art to their likeness, work with my concept artists to tweak proportions and make sure that we're translating this design that we've all fallen in love with, only then is it time for me to show the costume to them.”

While many of the show’s supersuit costumes—such as Homelander’s—haven’t changed over the years, Shannon has made imperceptible tweaks over the years to improve both the construction and wearability of the suits. "We've been able to innovate with new things that have come along: fabrics that are a little stretchier, a lighter-weight muscle suit that's built into the structure of it. So now, what used to take Ant 15 minutes to get into takes him 32 seconds, and he's super comfy."

Given the sheer volume of gruesome and bloody fight scenes, the team has been put through the technical trenches on “The Boys”—and the duplicate costumes they demand. "If we're talking duplicates, I haven't done the tally," Shannon admits. "I mean, we're in the hundreds, honestly, depending on the complexity of the suit and the action. There's this whole team of artists that work together to create these moments. We've got my super suits team back in LA, who test blood and fabrics and pre-treat things, and my super suits team in Toronto, who test more blood and fabrics—and they work with the FX department, prosthetics, props, and costumes."

"It's multi-faceted, and that's the symbiotic beauty about this particular show. With challenges, any one day of shooting on The Boys would be like the big gag in any other show's entire season," Shannon continues. "There were lots of meetings with our directors to talk about their vision of how we're going to achieve these gags, and lots of going back to the drawing board with our concept artists and playing with, 'Well, this is what laser damage looks like on Homelander's chest across eight options, which one do you like best? Well, I like two, but I like the blood of six, and can it be a little goopy? There's so much stuff that happens in the preparation to provide you guys with what you end up seeing as a finished product."