Superman’s iconic black suit was almost in Justice League, and now you can see its cinematic debut in a deleted scene from the film.
On Friday, Warner Bros. released a deleted scene, simply titled “Black Suit,” to promote the Blu-ray and DVD release of Justice League, available March 13. In the scene, Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) is fresh from his resurrection when he strolls around his Kryptonian ship. That’s when a black version of his super-suit appears behind him in the background.
Inverse previously confirmed with cinematographer Fabian Wagner that scenes shot of Superman’s Black Suit were deleted from the final cut of the movie. “It’s a cool looking costume. Sadly, we didn’t see that either in the final cut,” Wagner told Inverse in a December 2017 interview.
Similar to Superman’s death in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Superman was killed by Doomsday in 1992’s The Death of Superman. A year later, Superman came back to life in a black jumpsuit with a silver “S.” Unlike his normal red and blue suit, the black costume allowed Superman to absorb radiation form Earth’s sun at an accelerated rate. Since then, a number of retooled versions of the black variant appeared, including more variants with a different chest emblem, and armored versions with a cape.
Needless to say, fans were disappointed that Henry Cavill did not wear the black costume in the final cut of Justice League. Several pieces of tie-in merchandise, such as baseball hats, were modeled after Superman’s black costume. But when the film hit theaters back in November, the suit was nowhere to be found. Cavill had also teased the costume’s arrival on Instagram during production, which lent to expectations more than speculation.
Superman has worn his black costume several times since he first showed it off in 1993, such as this cover to 'Superman: Lois and Clark' #1 in 2015.
Inverse interviews with crew members who worked on Justice League say there’s enough material for a director’s cut, should there be one. Justice League famously changed directors between principal photography and its extensive (and expensive) reshoots, after Zack Snyder stepped down due to a family tragedy. The Avengers director Joss Whedon, who received screenwriting credit, helmed the reshoots.
Justice League* will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on March 13.
