Batman & Robin is notoriously regarded as one of the worst comic book films ever made, and now 20 years later even its director Joel Schumacher is apologizing to Batman fans for putting such a disaster into existence.
Speaking to Vice on the 20th anniversary of the film, Schumacher said: “Look, I apologize. I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that. They obviously had very high expectations after Batman Forever. But perhaps it was the more innocent world in comparison, I don’t know. I just know that I’ll always go down over the nipples on Batman starting with Batman Forever.”
Regarding the controversial Bat-Nipples, Schumacher went on to add that: “Such a sophisticated world we live in where two pieces of rubber the size of erasers on old pencils, those little nubs, can be an issue. It’s going to be on my tombstone, I know it. [The decision] was made by Jose Fernandez, who was our brilliant lead sculpture. If you look at Batman and Batman Returns, it was the genius Bob Ringwood that created those suits, so by the time we got to Batman Forever, the rubber and techniques had gotten so sophisticated. If you look at when Michael Keaton appears in the first suit, you’ll notice how large it is. It was brilliant but the best they could do at the time. By the time Batman Forever came around, rubber molding had become so much more advanced. So I said, let’s make it anatomical and gave photos of those greek status and those incredible anatomical drawings you see in medical books. He did the nipples and when I looked at them, I thought, that’s cool.”
SEE ALSO: Can we all just admit that Batman & Robin was kind of awesome?
Schumacher also discussed the evolution of the character on screen, stating: “What’s interesting to me is if you see Tim Burton’s and my version, you can see how innocent viewers were back then. It’s really interesting to me, because if you see Tim’s and my [films], you’d understand how innocent the audience was back then when it demanded to have more of a family-friendly Batman. Then when you see Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, the last one especially where he’s dealing with real class and economic problems, you see how the audience has changed in the fact that they can accept and want darker and darker subject matter.”
Let us know below in the comments below if you accept the apology from Joel Schumacher…
Originally published June 14, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
