Aside from many DC fans wanting to see Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League, one thing that was near the top of countless wishlists was that of Superman’s fabled black costume. Having been donned when the Man of Tomorrow returned to the land of the living in both the comics that followed Reign of the Supermen and in the Superman: Doomsday animated film, that just naturally seemed like the direction in which the live action flicks would go, especially when someone like Snyder takes many visual cues from the source material.
True, it did put in an appearance of sorts, but it ultimately surfaced in a deleted scene on the Blu-ray release. Not only that, but Kal-El himself never even put on the costume; it served as more of an Easter egg, you could say.
From the sound of it, costume designer Michael Wilkinson and his colleagues were also intrigued by the color scheme. In fact, he recently had the following to say to Digital Spy, even making some of the same points that we also did:
“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.”
Still, it’s important to stress that what we see in theaters are merely adaptations, and often loose ones at that. Plus, many creative decisions are commonly course corrected, or are scrapped altogether once a story comes together. This case was no different, as Wilkinson and others felt they had to serve the tale they were crafting:
“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.”
When bluntly laid out like that, it’s easy to agree that the red and blue scheme was best suited for Justice League, especially since many moviegoers thought the DC Extended Universe was overly dark to begin with. But at least we still have that dream sequence from Man of Steel to hold onto, in addition to various action figures to have been released.
