Scenes cut from 'The Dark Knight Rises' included the explanation of Bane's injuries.

Director Christopher Nolan shot footage for the blockbuster sequel - which has a run time of 164 minutes - which examined the villain's origins, including the injuries he sustained in an ''attack'' which led to his unusual look.

Speaking about the character, who is played in the film by Tom Hardy, costume designer Lindy Hemming revealed to America's GQ magazine: ''The thing that you should have seen during that sequence is [Bane] being injured in his youth.

''So one of the fundamental things about his costume is that he has this scar from the back injury. Even if he hasn't got the bulletproof vest on, he still has to wear the waist belt and the braces.

''In that [deleted] scene in the prison, where he's learning to fight the same way Batman learned to fight, he's wearing an early version of his waist belt.

''There's a whole early section for Tom Hardy where he's fighting and being taunted by people. He's got chains on him, and he's standing on a wooden thing while people are attacking him. And in that scene, he's wearing a much more ragged, primitive version of the mask.''

Lindy also revealed Bane's clothes were deliberately kept anonymous in order to keep his origins vague.

She said: ''We made them first and then ruined them, obviously. There were two things about his clothes. The first thing is that they should be pretty undefined in date and where they came from, other than perhaps north of Asia.''