Justice League: Why Superman Wears the Black Suit in the Snyder Cut

A resurrected Superman (Henry Cavill) is back in black for the first time since Man of Steel when the Last Son of Krypton returns in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Spoilers for the Justice League Snyder Cut follow. After the death of Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a contrite Batman (Ben Affleck) brings together Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) to prevent catastrophe at the hands of Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and the forces of Darkseid (Ray Porter). Together, the heroes use the energy of the Mother Box to revive Superman — the black-suited missing member of the Justice League.

Unlike the 2017 theatrical cut of Justice League — where Superman flies back into action while wearing the traditional red and blue costume — the Snyder Cut sees Clark Kent return to the place of his rebirth to suit up in a new look: the Kryptonian scout ship that crash-landed in Metropolis during General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) assault against Earth in Man of Steel.

Walking through the ship’s hallowed halls, he’s encouraged by memories of his birth father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), and his human father, Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner), whose wisdom inspires Clark to suit up and once again take flight as humanity’s symbol of hope: Superman. For the return of Superman, Snyder has explained why he wanted a comic book-accurate appearance with the black suit:

“The black suit, you can say that in modern Krypton, when he left, everyone was wearing black suits. So it is sort of linked to, in some ways, the old world. I think is a more direct relationship to his family,” Snyder told I Minutemen. “In a lot of ways, the blue suit, to me, represents his kind of place on Earth. The blue suit is his suit of a hero, the suit of his destiny, whereas the black suit is more personal in a lot of ways, more about his family. One is outward, and one is inward.”

On his five-movie plan that included a Justice League Part 2 and Part 3, Snyder added, “It was always my intention with the larger arc of the movies to realize that more completely, but I think you get a sense of it here.” In the epilogue chapter of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, “A Father Twice Over,” a bespectacled Clark Kent returns to Metropolis, looks to the sky, and rips open his shirt to reveal the silver symbol of his homeworld as he soars once again as the black-suited Superman.

Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Ciarán Hinds, Ray Porter, Joe Manganiello, and Jared Leto, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max.