Zack Snyder's Justice League shows the opportunity the theatrical cut squandered in not having Superman don his black suit. The Snyder Cut will arrive on HBO Max on March 18th, and with its marketing campaign now in full swing, it's becoming crystal clear that the mistakes of the theatrical version were even bigger than what was originally known. The trailers show a movie with a far more vast scale, action scenes that put those of the theatrical cut to shame, and characters previously left out completely who would have expanded the scope of the film's universe even in simple cameos. Additionally, Superman's black suit highlights another major failing in not only the theatrical cut itself, but the marketing for it.

During principal photography, Snyder was already facing considerable pushback from Warner Bros. on the general outline of Justice League, and though Snyder played along with the studio's mandates, he essentially managed to stealthily shoot the Justice League movie along the lines of his vision at the same time. This might help to explain Warner Bros. "unwatchable" response to the 2 hour and 20 minute cut Snyder had screened for studio executives, but it's also what's made the Snyder Cut itself possible in the first place. The upcoming director's cut will see Superman don his famous black suit, pulled from Superman's resurrection in the comics after his death in battle against Doomsday in The Death of Superman, which was partially the basis for Snyder's previous DCEU film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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Snyder's rationale for using the black suit also appears to be more symbolic than the re-energizing tool it was in the comics, with Snyder having it explained it as being emblematic of Superman's journey in his planned five-movie arc, which would have eventually seen him return to the red and blue suit. Whether that actually comes to pass remains to be seen, but the black suit itself is now symbolic in another, unexpected way. In essence, Justice League abandoned what could have been a major asset to drum up excitement for the revival of Superman after his death by not having him in the black suit.

Superman's Mustache CGI Put Attention On Him For The Wrong Reasons

As news of the Justice League reshoots emerged, Henry Cavill's mustache for Mission: Impossible - Fallout became a big problem due to scheduling issues the two films ran into. Reports arose that Cavill's mustache would be digitally removed from the Justice League reshoots, which seemed to put many minds at ease. That is, until Justice League arrived in November of 2017, and the CGI lower half of Superman's face stood out like a sore thumb.

This also had the unfortunate side effect of acting as marker for just how much more extensive the reshoots had been than what Warner Bros. had indicated, demonstrating that the Superman footage in the theatrical cut was almost entirely from the reshoots. Plenty of other elements of the film, from color grading to many scenes being framed more in the style of a 90s era TV show, just further showed that Justice League was not the movie that Zack Snyder had made, while Cavill's mustache became a punchline almost immediately. As has been a consistent refrain in the analysis of Justice League, it didn't have to be that way.

The Black Suit Could Have Been A Marketing Asset

Justice League Superman Black Suit

As part of Justice League's home media release, a deleted scene showed Superman retrieving his suit from the Kryptonian scout ship, stepping out from the the ship in a clear homage to his first scene in the suit in Man of Steel. Though the scene showed Clark donning his classic red and blue suit with a black and silver version as an option that he passes by, Snyder had actually been game for Kal-El to don his black suit in the vein of Superman's post-resurrection suit in the comics. Though Cavill wore the traditional suit during production, Snyder had aimed for the suit to be recolored to the black version in post-production.

The mustache disaster became one of many components of Justice League's downfall, and helped set off a chain reaction of misfortune for the DCEU. With the benefit of the past three and a half years, its now clear that the movie could have had a huge marketing tool at its disposal with the black suit. Debuting on the big screen for the first time, and in the very first theatrical Justice League movie, no less, the black suit could have been something that Warner Bros. put front and center in the trailers, television ads, posters, and overall marketing for Justice League, which would doubtlessly have been a hype-generating machine all on its own. Of course, had the studio simply recolored the suit to black as Snyder had wanted to and still released the reshot version of the film, Cavill's mustache would likely have continued to be a major headache once the film was released. Fortunately, the Snyder Cut doesn't have that problem.

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The Snyder Cut's Marketing Is Rectifying That Mistake

Black Suit Superman - Zack Snyder's Justice League

In comparison to how little Superman was actually featured in the marketing for Justice League's theatrical cut, the Snyder Cut is making no effort whatsoever to hide his return, along with the fact that he'll be wearing the black suit in the movie. The first teaser released for DC FanDome showed the aforementioned deleted scene, with Superman now exiting the scout ship in the black suit, while the one previously shown in the deleted scene that Clark passes by will now presumably be recolored to the red and blue version. The teaser showed additional shots of Superman in the black suit, including one of him punching Steppenwolf, while the newest trailer takes it even further with glimpses of Superman taking flight in the black suit and unleashing his heat vision in a particularly memorable shot.

Already, the entire conversation around Superman's appearance in the Snyder Cut is the inverse of what it was for the theatrical version. The latter was overshadowed by the distraction of Cavill's mustache with the film's all-around presentation of the Man of Steel not making much of an impact otherwise (test audiences reportedly rated Superman and Batman the lowest in ranking the members of the League). Meanwhile, the black suit has been proudly showcased at every opportunity in the Snyder Cut's marketing materials, with many viewers eager to see a different perspective on Superman with an alternate suit pulled right from one of his best-known comic book stories. Both Snyder and HBO Max are clearly well aware that they can essentially market a never-before-seen take on Superman in a brand new suit, and they're making sure that no one misses that in the lead up to the Snyder Cut's release.

The theatrical cut of Justice League effectively traded the excitement that the black suit could have generated for endless one-liners about Cavill's mustache, and added to the myriad of other blunders made with the film, the film ended up paying the price for it. Now three and half years later and less than a month remaining before its release, the Snyder Cut isn't letting that same opportunity slip away. On top of every other contrast that's already been shown between the two versions of the movie, Superman's black suit is one more area where Zack Snyder's Justice League has already come out ahead.

NEXT: Justice League: Superman's Hologram In The Snyder Cut Explained 

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