Back in black? Not exactly.
Despite scores of rumors and half-baked story claims, Justice League never alluded to Black Suit Superman in any shape or form, leaving fans to wonder what could have been. And just as Henry Cavill teased viewers via Instagram throughout the film’s storied (messy?) production – not to mention those Justice League merchandise items depicting a black-suited Man of Steel – cinematographer Fabian Wagner has since confirmed that, yes, Cavill donned the famous armor on set. It just didn’t make the cut.
That’s something that can be said about a lot of Justice League content, given Warner Bros. reportedly placed a two-hour mandate on its DC mega-movie soon after Joss Whedon replaced Zack Snyder at the helm. As you surely know, a fan petition asking the studio to give us Snyder’s footage has already surpassed a staggering 150,000 signatures and continues to grow each and every day and now, a new petition has been started asking WB to give us those scenes of Superman in black.
“The theatrical cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE was very different from the original vision of the director ZACK SNYDER,” the Change.org petition reads. “The epic scenes he shot for the third act were cut from the movie due to keeping the movie length in check. Though, many fans signed the petition for the original Zack’s cut yet there has been no response on topic.”
Continuing on, it says:
“In the mean time, I came up with this idea of asking the Main Man at the DC FILMS to release the deleted SUPERMAN BLACK suit scene which everyone wants to see desperately. We won’t want it to be a missed opWe don’t know how many more decades it could take for the DC universe to reboot and cast another superman actor, kill him in the movie and then hopefully make him return to life in his BLACK SUIT in all of his glory.”
Despite the horrible grammar, we do agree with the petition. As mentioned above, scenes with Superman in his alternate costume were definitely shot, that much we know, and we’d certainly love to see them at some point. Then again, we’ve also heard conflicting repots about this, as Wagner recently said that what was shot might have just been test footage, telling Collider the following in a recent interview:
“Yeah you know actually, to be totally honest I just can’t remember if we were shooting it as a test or if we were actually shooting it as a full scene with the suit. I definitely shot it, but I just can’t remember if it was more of a test or a full scene. But definitely seeing the black costume was great. So I’m not 100% sure whether that would have been in the movie anyhow.”
Continuing on, he said:
“But yeah, I mean, all the Superman scenes were great, and even just shooting Superman in his normal suit was just, you know, a lot of fun for someone who grew up in that era where the Superman movies just had come out and it was just great to shoot those iconic characters like Superman and Batman. For me that was just great fun.”
So, it still remains a bit unclear as to what exactly was filmed. Whether it was just test footage or finished scenes though, as an admirer of well-made superhero costumes, we’d love for something regarding Superman’s black suit to be included on the eventual Justice League Blu-ray as bonus content. Even if it is just test footage, we’re sure that fans will still feel some sense of satisfaction after getting a look at what could have been.
