Creating the Costumes For Zack Snyder's Justice League: Gallery
Long-time Snyder collaborator, costume designer Michael Wilkinson, breaks down how he created new looks for a new epic: From honoring Darkseid's legacy to crafting the black supersuit.
Costume designer Michael Wilkinson is no stranger to epic movies – among his credits you’ll see titles like TRON: Legacy, Noah, and the live-action Aladdin. You’ll also see several collaborations with director Zack Snyder, with whom he’s worked since 2009’s Watchmen, including, of course, Snyder’s DCEU films Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. Snyder’s latest project, though, takes “epic” to new levels: his four-hour Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the sweeping and action-packed realization of the director’s original vision for the ultimate DC team-up.
Those who have followed the story of the “Snyder cut” know this is no ordinary director’s cut – it tells a very different story, is double the length of the 2017 Justice League, features an entirely new score, and showcases some fresh new looks for many of its central characters (and some much-welcome new ones). In this exclusive interview, Wilkinson breaks down how he created the looks – old, new, ancient, and… “future” – for Zack Snyder‘s Justice League, from honoring the comic-book legacy of Darkseid to creating the black supersuit and visualizing the Knightmare. Click the images below for the stories behind the costumes.
New-Look Steppenwolf
“The costume department generated all of the concept art for the digital characters – full turnarounds, drawn in 3D drawing applications. I knew I wanted to create textures and silhouettes that were unlike anything that audiences had seen before, since the culture that Darkseid, Desaad, and Steppenwolf come from is so advanced and so alien to us. I researched new innovative design languages, and realized that I needed to explore new ways of drawing and expressing my ideas. I was fortunate enough to work with the amazing concert artist Jerad Marantz, who poured so much talent and technical innovation into the drawings of these characters.”
Honoring the Design Legacy of Darkseid
“To me it’s always important to start with the legacy version of the costume, as drawn by the great illustrators over the decades. I look at what is iconic and defining about the illustration, and then I use this insight as a leaping point from which to explore my own ideas.”
Creating the Amazon Look
“I’m so glad that audiences are seeing more of the Amazon world, because my team and I put so much heart and soul into creating the look of this world. Not only did I give a lot of thought to their culture and history, creating a graphic language of shapes, motifs, textures, and finishes that reflect this, but also I wanted to create details that show the differences in the warriors’ personalities. We experimented with new materials, sculpted and molded many new costume elements, used fur-like fabrics, customized jewelry and worked with a talented crew of art finishers that created a stunning range of colors and painted effects – that way each character’s costume was unique.”
“With Flash’s design we wanted to hint at various nano-technologies and aerodynamic shapes that Barry would have explored to create a suit that moves through space and time in the most comfortable, efficient way. Whenever I interpret a 2D legacy drawing of a character and make it into a 3D costume that a film camera has to adore, I aim to enrich the textures and silhouettes, and I think about every square centimeter of the costume, from the soles of the feet to under the arms!”
A Post-Apocalyptic Knightmare
“This scene was exciting because it’s totally new for the DC canon – I don’t want to create spoilers for the fans who haven’t seen this sequence, but essentially we created a post-apocalyptic look for all of the characters, aging and embellishing versions of each character’s costume – adding textures and various layering pieces to achieve a vibe that worked for this dystopian vision.”
The Black Superman Suit
“For Justice League I found a new fabric for the mesh oversuit of the regular Superman suit that made the undersuit really gleam in a beautiful way. I was excited about the idea of the black Superman suit because I knew it would look incredible if we really pushed some elements that we had already created with the regular suit – we made the undersuit even more metallic than previously, and it gleamed dramatically through the mesh. The dimensional chain-mail print on the mesh was done using silvery graphite metallic paints. All of these tweaks ensured that a monochromatic Supersuit was anything but boring!”
Cyborg Gets Practical
“Ray and I always joked that the VFX motion-capture rig that we created for him to wear for the shoot was anything but ‘heroic’ – it’s a testimony to his sense of poise that he managed to carry it off with a certain dignity! It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, just not quite as impressive or intimidating as his fellow team members’ [outfits].”
A Glimpse of the Atlanteans
“Since the ancient Atlanteans are on screen for such a short time I had to make sure that the audience has strong visual links to the two time periods – but there are definite differences, since this culture changes with time and the different situations that they find themselves in. For example, we see them in ancient times before they inhabit the waters, so this needed to be reflected in their costumes.”
“Witty” Civilian Looks
“I like to keep my design choices quite free and witty when it comes to the ‘civilian’ looks – links between the colors and textures of the superhero suits can be interesting, but often contrast is also effective. For example, the hiding-from-the-world quality of Barry Allen’s clothes versus the extreme hi-tech quality of his supersuit. Above all, I wanted to show through their costumes that they all came from very different backgrounds and had different strengths.”
