Tim Burton on Batman Forever's Controversial Batsuit: "Go F-ck Yourself"

It's difficult to overstate the impact that Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns had not only on the world of comic books, but on blockbuster cinema in general. However, when the studio thought he was potentially descending into territory that was too dark for the Caped Crusader, the series then enlisted Joel Schumacher for Batman Forever, resulting in a number of aesthetic changes to the franchise. One of those changes was adding nipples to the Batsuit worn by Val Kilmer, with Burton recently reflecting on the absurdity of going from such a grim and gothic world to something with quite a different tone.

"It is funny to see this now, because all these memories come back of, 'It's too dark'," Burton shared with Empire in regards to the tonal shifts of the franchise. "So, it makes me laugh a little bit."

He continued, "[Back then] they went the other way. That's the funny thing about it. But then I was like, 'Wait a minute. Okay. Hold on a second here. You complain about me, I'm too weird, I'm too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go f-ck yourself.' Seriously. So yeah, I think that's why I didn't end up [doing a third film]..."

Given that the films focus on "The Dark Knight," and with Burton coming from the world of horror, thanks to projects like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, it's easy to see how Batman Returns would go into even darker territory than its predecessor. He went on to note, however, that he doesn't see the film merely for its most macabre elements.

"I'm not just overly dark. That represents me in the sense that... that's how I see things. It's not meant as pure darkness. There's a mixture," Burton confessed. "I feel really fondly about it because of the weird experiment that it felt like."

Interestingly, the costume designer responsible for adding nipples to the Batsuit, Jose Fernandez, recently detailed his inspiration for the aesthetic choice.

"With Val Kilmer's suit in Batman Forever, the nipples were one of those things that I added," Fernandez shared with MEL. "It wasn't fetish to me, it was more informed by Roman armor -- like Centurions. And, in the comic books, the characters always looked like they were naked with spray paint on them -- it was all about anatomy, and I like to push anatomy. I don't know exactly where my head was at back in the day, but that's what I remember. And so, I added the nipples. I had no idea there was going to end up being all this buzz about it."

Robert Pattinson starred in this year's The Batman, which is expected to be getting a sequel.

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