The Batman trailer unveiled at DC FanDome kicked ass. The Nirvana soundtrack, great Batsuit and awesome production design all bodes very well for next year. Plus, any skepticism about whether Robert Pattinson will be a good Dark Knight seems to have evaporated after his performance in Tenet. Despite all this, however, there was one aspect that drew some mockery online.
This is one of the final shots of the trailer, showing Bruce without his cowl and with black makeup smeared around his eyes. He looks a bit like he’s doing cosplay as the Crow and there were a bunch of tweets poking fun at “emo Batman.” All that seems a bit silly, though, as the Dark Knight wallows in his tragic past, does a lot of moping and hangs around in a black cape – the guy is practically on the black parade.
Now, Arrow star Stephen Amell has jumped in to defend the look, saying:
If you wanna launch a DC Franchise that has some legs, the smokey eye look is a good jumping off point. pic.twitter.com/EoiatwxOuF
— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) September 6, 2020
In his tenure as Oliver Queen, Amell was frequently seen with black eye makeup on, sometimes even completely swapping out his domino mask for just a smear of black across his face. And given that Arrow launched the wildly popular Arrowverse (no, I’m not going to call it the CWVerse), this could be a great omen for the success of this corner of the live-action DC Universe.
Personally, I think The Batman‘s going to be great, though the production hit a major speed bump last week when Robert Pattinson was diagnosed with COVID-19. Director Matt Reeves is continuing to shoot scenes that don’t involve him, but this is a delay the film ill needs after the long lockdown hiatus. Right now, the movie is set for release on October 1st, 2021. Let’s hope it doesn’t slip back any further, as it’s been way too long since we got a standalone Batman pic.