The Most Controversial Costume Changes In Sci-Fi Movie History

If there's a constant with cinematic sci-fi franchises, it's this: costume changes between movies allow for more toy designs, and thus sales. If there's a constant for sci-fi movies based on comics, it's that costumes will nearly always get a "more cinematic" redesign. Sometimes, that aligns with what the public wants, like Michael Keaton's 1989 Batsuit, which allayed fears that a less-muscular actor could play an intimidating superhero. Other times, it seems so out of left-field that we wonder what all involved were thinking.

This list encompasses many of these, and more. Whether they be alterations made in adaptation, in between sequels, or as supposed upgrades, the costume changes that follow are those which have engendered the most debate among sci-fi film fans. Sometimes, the debate clearly landed in favor of the initial skepticism. Other times, the changes actually worked for the specific story being told. Either way, as more generations continue to discover these titles, the controversy will likely continue.

David Lynch's 1984 "Dune" adaptation elicits mixed responses at best, but regardless of a viewer's reaction to the storytelling, few would deny its production design is awesome to behold, even if it's not always true to the Frank Herbert's book. Bob Ringwood's moisture-conserving Stillsuits prefigure his Tim Burton Batsuit design, but they're on that same path, with an H.R. Giger-inspired bio-mechanical anatomy costume look. (Ironically, their lack of breathability in real life made them uniquely terrible at hydrating their actors.) 

By comparison, when Denis Villeneuve mounted his production of "Dune," the Stillsuits looked half-assed by comparison; more like regular clothes with extra bits glued on than form-fitting survival devices. The general idea was to make the Stillsuits look more like something actual desert tribes wear today than to look explicitly futuristic and alien. Villeneuve got so much right that in the end, complaints about the costumes faded away and the movie won six Oscars. You know what the movie didn't win the Oscar for, though? Costumes. (In fairness, it was nominated.)

If there's one thing that can be said for the leather costume worn by Ben Affleck in 2003's "Daredevil" movie, it's that it's better than the full-body blindfold worn by Rex Smith in the 1989 TV movie "The Trial of the Incredible Hulk." If there's anything else that can be said in its favor, we don't know it. The outfit looked more like bondage gear than most super-suits, and that's saying a lot. 

"Daredevil" director Mark Steven Johnson knows it, too. "We went all over the place on the costume. It's a really hard one because you get the fans who are upset that it's not spandex," Johnson told Yahoo. "And I thought it should be spandex, too! But then you try spandex and it looks ridiculous ... We ultimately settled on leather because it was the most practical ... But it was also easy for it to come off looking like S&M! And the horns didn't help."

Johnson gives all due credit to the costume now worn by Charlie Cox in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an improvement, acknowledging, "It feels kind of like armor, but there's still leather elements. They did a really nice job with that suit."

After two movies as a strong leader more competent than the male heroes assigned to rescue her, Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) got captured and stripped down to a gold bikini by Jabba the Hutt in "Return of the Jedi." For straight male fans of a certain generation, it made for a formative moment, as immortalized in the episode of the sitcom "Friends" when Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) wears the outfit for Ross (David Schwimmer). For women who idolized Leia, it hit a little differently.

Over a decade later, Kenner/Hasbro finally made an action figure of Leia in the get-up, and though it was officially labeled "Leia as Jabba's Prisoner," the fans quickly dubbed it "Slave Leia." The first such figure proved hugely popular with collectors, though after a while the appeal died down. After Disney took over "Star Wars," they quietly started phasing out that particular look in merchandise, along with the word "slave," which also got removed from the name of Boba Fett's starship.

Asked how she would explain the outfit to kids, Fisher had the best answer (via Insider). "Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn't like it. And then I took it off. Backstage." More recently, in a rebranding that takes a cue from Fisher's quote, Disney began describing Leia in that outfit as "Huttslayer."

The Green Goblin has one of those costumes that works on the page much more easily than in real life. It's supposed to be deranged tycoon Norman Osborn in, more or less, a Halloween costume and mask. On the page, that mask can be as expressive and realistic as any given artist wants to make it. In reality, a criminal in a rubber mask would just look like exactly that.

Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" tried to come up with an alternative that would make sense within the world of a movie, and came up with the notion that Osborn would wear green armor to increase his strength, and design a helmet reminiscent of his personal tribal mask collection. Fans derisively described the appearance as resembling a Power Ranger, which isn't particularly a compliment. Even devotees of the "Power Rangers" TV shows will acknowledge the costumes look cheesy.

Willem Dafoe's committed performance helped people overlook their issues with the design, though many fans wondered why Raimi would cast Dafoe — whose face actually looks like a sinister goblin when he grins just right — and then put a mask over him. At long last, in Marvel Studios' "Spider-Man: No Way Home," he kept his natural deranged face and donned a purple hood to look more like the comics. The power armor underneath it all remained for the Raimi movie fans, however. 

Michael Bay never particularly claimed to know much about Transformers, as toys or otherwise. His primary interest as director of five live-action films in the movie franchise seemed to be that really cool, fast cars could also turn into robots, allowing for double the options when blowing stuff up real good. So when he added painted flames to Autobot leader Optimus Prime, in both robot and truck mode, old-school fans rebelled. As seen in newsgroup discussions about the 2007 film, "Flames on Optimus = Nipples on Batman" became a refrain.

In order to make the transformations look like believable mass-shifting while still allowing for riders inside in vehicle mode — something the toys never worried much about — the robot models became far more complex on screen, and in the end the red flames on a blue body helped keep Optimus' familiar color scheme somewhat intact. With veteran Peter Cullen still providing the voice, this remained a recognizable hero, though later installments that showed him with PTSD, relishing the slaughter of his enemies, raised several eyebrows to say the least.

Regardless, at least the Bay movies realized they needed Prime. The 1986 "Transformers" animated movie flat-out killed him off, presuming fans would be happy with the Judd Nelson-voiced Hot Rod as a substitute. They were not.

In comics, the Joker is generally a skinny, dapper fellow with purple coattails, and a face transformed by chemical exposure to have white skin and green hair. Jack Nicholson's 1989 movie version stuck pretty closely to that look, as did Cesar Romero on the 1966 TV show. When fans first glimpsed Heath Ledger in clips from "The Dark Knight," however, several aspects seemed off. 

Rather than a bright splash of color against the darkness of Gotham City, Ledger wore a more muted purple. The clown hair and face were clearly dye and makeup, and sloppily applied at that. But once the movie came out and Ledger's actual performance nailed the clown prince of crime's personality, fans rejoiced, and the actor won an Oscar (a posthumous one, tragically). The movie's logic that Joker donned "war paint" was far from canonical, but Ledger's embrace of chaos worked in spite of it.

Fans again worried when images of Jared Leto's Joker first hit the web, complete with the L.A. gangster aesthetic favored by "Suicide Squad" director David Ayer. Covered in tattoos and sporting metal teeth, he showed bleached skin and hair, but otherwise dressed more like a modern-day pimp. The logic behind the character appearance? After this Joker murdered Robin, Batman knocked his teeth out, prompting the "Damaged" tattoo on his forehead. "Suicide Squad" fared well at the box office; critically, less so.

(There was also, of course, discourse around the look of Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, but as that 2019 solo drama lacks any elements of sci-fi, it's outside the bounds of our discussion here.)