Justice League‘s lack of black suit Superman turns out to be a creative choice made behind-the-scenes by filmmakers prior to production’s start.
The suit was long-rumored for the DC Comics ensemble flick, as fans expected to see the iconic garb upon Superman’s resurrection following his Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice death. However, the suit would turn out to be nothing more than an Easter egg and a detail in a deleted scene. With DC Exhibition: Dawn of Super Heroes opening up at The O2 London, Justice League costume designer revealed to Digital Spy why the black suit didn’t make the cut.
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“The black suit is something that has fascinated us as filmmakers from the get-go,” Wilkinson said. “We saw a glimpse of it in the nightmare sequence from Man of Steel when Superman was wading through skulls, and also in the deleted scene from Justice League where you do see Clark walking through the spaceship and it’s teased in the background.
“When we were prepping Justice League, at first it seemed that it might be a logical choice for the look of Superman when he’s resurrected. Zack is extremely respectful and passionate about the depiction of Superman in comic books and graphic novels, and traditionally when he is resurrected, he is in the black suit.”
However, as the filmmakers progressed through Justice League, they saw an opportunity to make the film more hopeful and brighter (literally).
“But as the tone of the film developed and we were in pre-production, the filmmakers felt that the classic red and blue suit seemed more appropriate to our story and our script,” Wilkinson said. “It seemed that a more positive, upbeat image of Superman was what was needed – the idea of hope and that the world could in fact be saved was important, so that’s the direction that we went.”
These remarks finally lay the debate of Snyder’s cut versus Whedon’s cut to rest, at least in terms of the black suit Superman’s appearance having been a possibility for the former.
Justice League is available now on blu-ray and DigitalHD.
