Bat-distraction: New Batmobile Photos Released
As the year pivots from frustrating lockdowns amid a terrifying pandemic to utter lawlessness in the streets, we’ve all probably been waking up on the wrong side of the bed on a daily basis. Today, your author roused himself feeling particularly bitter as he realized the sniffle from last night has evolved into something a little more persistent. That’s going to keep me on the sidelines while my neighbors decide whether to protest brutality or embrace it fully by ensuring another quadrant of the city is razed. Perhaps I should have splurged on a fancier pack of masks, surely then this 2020 would have all worked out in my favor.
Now would be the perfect time to share the hollow virtue-signaling coming from the leadership at Ford and General Motors, both of which have announced they’re finally ready to tackle discrimination head-on several days after the tragic killing of George Floyd. But you know that would be pointless because — and I can’t put too fine a point on this — they are automakers and nobody sane wants their corporate opinion on racial politics.
So we’re covering the new Batmobile (below the break), which was only controversial in 1995 because someone designed it to look exactly like a giant phallus (above).
The new Batmobile is impressively un-penislike, going so far as to resemble an actual automobile. While we’ve only gotten a handful of teaser images of the actual car, concept artist Jeff Frost released some new photos on his website over the weekend. Based on stills from the film, the model shared by Frost seems to have been the design director Matt Reeves decided to run with and gives us an excellent idea of what the film car will look like. However, he may never have intended for the images to get out into the public. The page where they were originally posted was swiftly made private after the media took notice.
In The Batman, Bruce Wayne’s extensive collection of prized automobiles will be capped off by a retro-futuristic muscle car highly reminiscent of Dodge’s Challenger. Though there’s not much to denote it as any specific model beyond its general shape. It’s more of an amalgamation of all things brash and American that might have rolled of an assembly line between the Johnson and Trump administrations.
It’s also a throwback to the Batmobiles of yore. Most of the cars Batman has been forced to ride around in since the 1990s have been custom builds from the ground up. In the comics, Wayne has to make due modifying real cars that frequently have to be retrofitted, repaired, or replaced. It was among my favorite bat-related subplots and the next movie is supposed to address this by giving us a real-world Batman just cutting his teeth on late-night justice. I’m holding out hope for an extended wrenching scene where Alfred spends 20 minutes trying to fish out a screw that has fallen into the engine bay. But will understand if they have to cut it down to a lean 10 due to time constraints.
The film comes out on October 1st, 2021. We’re guessing a trailer or two will be released long before that. Expect us to share anything that spends significant time on one of the greatest movie-car lineages in history and ignore just about everything else.
[Images: Warner Bros; Jeff Frost]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Yup. The Tunbler remains undefeated.
Looks like an appearance package for a Challenger. Kind of like how kids-show heroes are jointly developed by the toymakers who will build them for sale in your local Target toy aisle.