“Matt [Reeves] definitely wanted the suit to be utilitarian.”
Even though The Batman came out early this year in March, the Matt Reeves’ directed crime epic remains one of the very best cinematic experiences of the year. There are many reasons why, but one of the visual keys was all the amazing costumes seen throughout the rainy streets of Gotham. This includes the iconic Batsuit worn by Robert Pattinson. Now in a larger piece by Deadline detailing all of 2022’s best supersuits, costume designers Glyn Dillon and David Crossman talked about what went into redesigning The Dark Knight’s classic look.
They started off by going into the keys of every Batman design.“There are four crucial ingredients to a Batsuit,” says Dillon and continued, “The cape, the cowl, the utility belt and the all-important insignia, or bat symbol.” The Batman, more so than even Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, was the most grounded take on the character fans have seen on the big screen to date. That’s definitely reflected in Pattinson’s look. Everything on the suit needed to have a purpose. “Matt definitely wanted the suit to be utilitarian,” Dillon said. He continued on, “and importantly, it had to be a suit that Robert could move and fight in. Practicality and mobility were the main concerns.” Batman in the past has had trouble “backing out of the driveway”. Like Nolan’s Dark Knight suit, the separate Cowl and neck pieces help Pattinson’s “World’s Greatest Detective” standout in the shadows. However, The Batman took the practicality even further with the cape turning into a wingsuit, similar to Nolan’s Batman’s “memory cloth” cape, and his classic bat emblem doubling as a removable blade.
Refocusing back on the film’s unique detective angle and Riddler-centric puzzles, Batman does more than fight in the latest film. The Batman brings the character back to his “Detective Comics” roots. That means our favorite hero does a lot of standing around, solving clues and Riddles with his partner in crime Commissioner Gordon. Due to this, the pair didn’t want the hero’s cape and cowl to be a distraction. “It was important to have a more neutral expression on the cowl,” Dillon explained and continued to say, “I thought it would be cool if the cowl had the stillness of a skull, and that meant Robert was free to do more with his eyes.” The suit looked like leather, but like past Batsuits it was 3D-printed molded rubber. However, Dillon adds “It was sewed by hand. “Because printing and molding the stitches didn’t look good enough, so the tiny stitch holes were sculpted in the computer, and then we had the amazing team in Jenny Alford’s workshop putting the stitches in by hand.” If that wasn’t enough, the suit was made with nylon to give a Kevlar bulletproof look to it and the cape was made from Japanese faux leather for a fierce weighty appearance.
Finally, while the suit was inspired by the comics, the main focus of this version was, again, practicality. Dillon points to the utility belt as a prime example. “For instance, his utility belt in the comics is yellow or gold and that’s carried through to most of the films,” he said. Dillon finished by saying, “but we liked the idea that he would use stuff that cops would use, leather ammo packs and handcuff holders etc… it feels much closer to ‘Special Forces’ than Spandex.”
This Batsuit is the perfect marriage between the comics and our real scary world. It retains the black and gray color scheme from Batman’s 80-plus-year history, but at the same time, it looks like it could have been made from the GCPD’s weapons stash. Dillon and Crossman knocked it out of the Bat-park with this epic, rugged feeling, costume. Again, it’s one of the endless reasons why The Batman is showing up on many critics and fans “Top 10 Films” list this year.
The Batman is currently streaming on HBO Max and is now available on Blu-ray. Check out Collider’s interview with Pattinson and Kravitz below: