Warner Bros. recently kicked off its slate of DC movies with Matt Reeves' The Batman, a solo movie that's been a long time coming. Robert Pattinson's Batman flick kicked off filming about two full years ago, although the team only finished about a quarter of the story's required footage before COVID-19 shut everything down. Incredibly, that didn't hold them back from bringing an internet-breaking first trailer.
The first-ever DC FanDome event from August 2020 gave The Batman its first moment in the spotlight, where Reeves and his team shared what they had worked on thus far. Pattinson's Caped Crusader shone as he beat up a team of bad guys in the rain, while Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon and Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman made their debuts as well.
All things considered, that trailer was something of a minor miracle for Warner Bros. with how much work still needed to get done for production. Now that the film is fully released to the public, fans also have a behind-the-scenes look at a moment from the plot that actually made it into that first look from a year and a half ago.
The Batman Test Footage Revealed
Hairstylist Zoe Tahir took to Instagram to share behind-the-scenes shots of Robert Pattinson's test from The Batman. One of these shots even made it into the teaser trailer that played at DC FanDome 2020.
Tahir posted images of Pattinson with the dark eye makeup he utilizes as Batman, although this particular shot had him in his street clothes as he hid in the shadows.
Pattinson's hair is messy as he hides from the public, looking on at Commissioner Pete Savage giving a speech about the rising crime in Gotham.
Tahir's caption revealed that the footage was only meant to be a test of Pattinson's Drifter appearance, initially "frustrating" for her since the look wasn't 100% finalized. In the end, she loved what came to the screen, especially how much the movie's top executives enjoyed the look:
“This day was supposed to be a test but the footage was actually released in the first teaser trailer in August 2020 .... It’s frustrating as an artist and perfectionist to not have control over things like that , when perhaps you feel you’ve not nailed a look , but these are actually some of my favourite images and over the years I’ve learned to relax about things like this .. if the director and producers are happy .. then they’re happy ! Every day even when filming I’m always looking at my work and thinking there are ways to improve or do something better , that doesn’t stop once the tests are over.”
The shot of Pattinson's Drifter from the first trailer can be seen below:
Early Footage Used for Final Batman Cut
The Batman's first trailer quickly became a hot topic amongst the comic book movie community because of how good it was compared to how much footage it used. This story about Pattinson's test footage making it into both that teaser trailer and the final movie makes it an even more impressive feat.
This movie had more challenges than it ever expected to face, but seeing this kind of work come through both early and late in production helped keep the momentum going the whole time.
Test footage almost always remains out of a movie's final cut, even staying away from promotional footage most of the time as well. It was clearly a proud moment for Tahir and her team to see this change with her work on Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne, even though it wasn't intended to be that way in the beginning.
The Batman is now playing in theaters worldwide.
