The Batman
Director Matt Reeves brought a new actor, Robert Pattinson, into the Batman role, and two costume designers, Glyn Dillon and David Crossman, with the sole purpose of designing the signature Batsuit. “There are four crucial ingredients to a Batsuit,” says Dillon: “The cape, the cowl, the utility belt and the all-important insignia, or bat symbol.” For this Batman, Reeves wanted the character to be grounded in reality, with every piece of the suit having a purpose. “Matt definitely wanted the suit to be utilitarian,” says Dillon, “and importantly, it had to be a suit that Robert could move and fight in. Practicality and mobility were the main concerns.” Dillon and Crossman managed to make even the bat insignia and the cape utilitarian, as the former doubled as a blade and the latter transformed into a wingsuit. In addition to the action sequences that make up any superhero film, the story sees Batman play detective, as he tries to solve the puzzles left for him by Paul Dano’s Riddler at each scene. “It was important to have a more neutral expression on the cowl,” Dillon says. “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.” Although the cowl had the appearance of moulded leather, Dillon says it was actually 3D-printed and molded in rubber. “But it was sewn by hand,” he says, “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.” The suit itself was created with nylon to give the appearance of bulletproof Kevlar, while the cape was made out of Japanese faux leather to give it weight. The design was inspired by the comics, but Dillon says the main idea behind this iteration of the Batsuit was its gritty realness. “For instance, his utility belt in the comics is yellow or gold and that’s carried through to most of the films,” he says, “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.”