Ahead of the release of Justice League, one of the biggest points of discourse surrounding the film’s was Henry Cavill‘s mustache having to be erased during reshoots, with the actor himself recently joking with Jimmy Kimmel Live that the power of his facial hair was so strong that it nearly “killed” Superman. The actor’s comments weren’t meant to be taken literally, instead noting that the mere notion of the mustache almost prevented Superman from having as large of a role in Justice League as he did, with that facial hair potentially being the only thing that kept his Mission: Impossible – Fallout character alive.
“I mean, I took the full force of that hook on my mustache and we know how powerful that is,” Cavill joked with Kimmel about his character’s fate in Fallout. “I mean, that almost killed Superman.”
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When Justice League was being developed, it was known that Superman would play a part of the adventure, yet fans were unclear how prominent his character would be, given that he seemingly sacrificed himself in the finale of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. When that film wrapped production, Cavill began working on Fallout, which included growing a mustache to play his character.
Sadly, Justice League director Zack Snyder stepped away from the production in the wake of a family tragedy, with director Joss Whedon stepping in to finish production and helm reshoots. These additional scenes required Cavill to return to the production, but with his facial hair being necessary for his Fallout character, he couldn’t shave the mustache, forcing digital artists to attempt to remove it from his new scenes. The results of the digital artistry were less than impressive, with many audiences finding those sequences distracting.
“I was slightly surprised. When we decided to go for the mustache, I certainly wasn’t expecting all the events to unfold as they were going to unfold,” Cavill previously shared with Empire of the discussion around the facial hair. “I wasn’t expecting Justice League reshoots to be as extensive as they were.”
He added, “When it came to that, it was one of those things where I’m in the middle of another movie, and to change my look for a movie that should have finished already becomes a real problem. And as you will see when the movie comes out, to have a fake mustache on would not have been a possibility. You’ll think, ‘Okay, yeah, a fake mustache would perhaps have been blown off in this situation.’ Unfortunately, it led to much dismay when Justice League came out, but that’s the nature of these things. You can’t win every time.”
Justice League is currently available on Blu-ray and DVD. Stay tuned for details on the future of the DC Extended Universe.
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