Justice League’s costume designer has explained the reason Superman doesn’t don the famous black suit from the comics. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice ended with Superman sacrificing himself to put an end to Doomsday’s rampage, which inspires Bruce Wayne to reach out to other superheroes to form the Justice League. Despite Warner Bros.’ strange attempts at pretending Superman may not be in the movie, it was clear the character would return at some point – it was just a question of whether or not he’d be on the side of good.

Many fans also assumed he’d be wearing the black suit he wears from the Death and Return of Superman comic arc, but in the final version, he’s donning his traditional red and blue costume. By now it’s well known that once Zack Snyder was replaced as Justice League’s director, Joss Whedon reshot a large portion of the story. A recently released deleted scene from Snyder’s cut shows Clark walking through the Kryptonian ship and looking at the black suit, only to select his original look for the finale instead.

This means there was never a version where Superman wore the black suit, and in a new interview with Digital Spy, Justice League’s costume designer Michael Wilkinson explains why.

Zack Snyder’s vision of Superman has been criticized for being too dour, and instead of being the optimistic figure from the comics and earlier movies, he’s a character who seems immensely bummed out about being a hero. That said, some fans love that the director tried to present a darker side to a character who is essentially a god among the human race. Synder had always envisioned a brighter, more optimistic take on Superman for his Justice League revival, but much of his take was removed in the final edit.

The black suit is something that has fascinated us as filmmakers from the get-go. 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.

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. 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.

Justice League has proved to be something of a headache for Warner Bros; in addition to the expense of producing it and the various production woes it faced along the way, the film was roundly lambasted and is officially the lowest grossing DCEU movie. The reception has also left the future of the franchise in flux, and the fates of a number of projects like Gotham City Sirens and Batgirl are still to be decided.

Another way the studio is spreading out after Justice League  is by pressing ahead with an R-rated Joker movie to be directed by Todd Philips and – potentially – starring Joaquin Phoenix, which could kick off a series of once-off, Elseworlds stories with DC characters.

More: Justice League Is the Lowest Grossing DC Universe Film

Source: Digital Spy

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