At this year’s Monsterpalooza (via BatmanNews), Norman Chan from Tested stopped by the Ironhead Studios booth to interview studio head Jose Fernandez. In their interview, Fernandez explained the eight-month process that went into creating Ben Affleck’s Batsuit for "Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice."
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"It was a pretty involved thing," Fernandez said. "You started with the designer calling me. He said he wanted to go with this old-school style, this visceral style. I was very into it."
"So we start with a body scan and kind of work from there," Fernandez continued. "The whole process is about eight months (this one in particular). It’s a long, amazing process…"
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While designing, Fernandez said practical concerns came first, such as "the ability for [Affleck] to turn his head, which was first and foremost for me." Aesthetically, it was also important to sculpt the suit’s anatomy to “look as natural but as powerful as possible."
However, Fernandez’s practical suit isn’t all that you see in the film’s final cut. "There’s a lot of stuff in here you don’t see," Fernandez said. "The cowl was ultimately digitally done – sculpted first, and then digitally finished. So [we were] kind of using a hybrid process, which I really like."
Like much of Hollywood movie-making, the Batfleck suit was a collaborative process between Ironhead and Warner Bros. "I say this – sometimes I have to fight myself – but I always want to give them the best version of what they want," Fernandez said. "Sometimes they know what they want; sometimes, they don’t. Ultimately, my goal is to satisfy the client. Even an average design can be great. A great design can be phenomenal. But I always try to find what that answer/solution, is."
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The "BvS" Batsuit isn't Fernandez's first design for the Batverse. He previously sculpted Michelle Pfeiffer's Frankenstein-stitch Catwoman cowl from "Batman Returns," back in 1992. "This cowl," he said, "I sculpted in my mid- to late-twenties, and I still love it." He said he tries to bring "gravity" and "timelessness" to the characters he designs.
"I always want to bring that timeless, iconic imagery no matter what it is," he said. "So I’m thinking, 'Ten years, it’s still going to be good. Twenty years, I think it’ll still be solid.' So that's kind of my thought: to not be trendy. What's going on now I'm not really concerned with. [It's] what is going to be strong now and ten, twenty years from now."