Henry Cavill’s CGI upper lip has a reputation for being the ruination of Justice League, but in the long run, his moustache ended up saving the movie.
The Unintended Saviour: Henry Cavill’s CGI Upper Lip
The making of Justice League has gone down in history as one of hasty reshoots, studio mismanagement, and behind-the-scenes turmoil, and the shadow it has cast over Warner Bros. and the DC Comics IP still has not faded from view.
The cliff notes version of Justice League’s production is that Zack Snyder departed the film after the tragic death of his daughter. Meanwhile, Warner Bros., wary of his vision for the DCEU after the polarized reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, brought in Joss Whedon to conduct extensive reshoots and completely overhaul the film into something akin to Whedon’s Avengers movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After Justice League’s November 2017 release, Snyder’s fans rallied for his original version of the film with the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, which was eventually greenlit and debuted on March 18th, 2021, as Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The making of Justice League is a perfect storm of Warner Bros. making just about every possible wrong decision they could have in handling the film – and DC on film more generally – but one mistake ended up being the saving grace of the movie that eventually became Zack Snyder’s Justice League, that is Henry Cavill’s infamous CGI moustache face. The Whedon-helmed reshoots of Justice League overlapped with Cavill’s involvement in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, in which Cavill’s character, August Walker, has a moustache, which Cavill had to keep for the Tom Cruise-led actioner.
The Turbulent Making of Justice League
With the Justice League reshoots being so rushed in order for the movie to make its November 17th, 2017 release date, Henry Cavill’s moustache had to be digitally erased from all of his reshot scenes, and the end result was a rubbery, CGI-smeared mockery of the Man of Steel’s face.
However, Cavill’s moustache face inadvertently served an important function of making it blatantly obvious that Justice League was not the movie Zack Snyder had set out to make, despite WB’s claims to the contrary. With the CGI rush job to remove Henry Cavill’s moustache being so poorly hidden, it made clear that nearly every single scene featuring Cavill’s Superman in the theatrical cut of Justice League was a product of the reshoots.
In turn, this also shed light on how much of the rest of the movie was from the reshoots and how much of the actual Snyder footage that was used was heavily retooled and reworked for the theatrical cut. This, combined with WB’s erroneous claims that the reshoots on Justice League had only been minor, galvanized Snyder’s fanbase into making increasingly organized and public calls of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, both on social media and in the real world with billboards, fly-over banners, and other methods. Without all of this to work from, the Snyder Cut movement would have had a much harder time getting off the ground and gaining mainstream support.
Henry Cavill’s Moustache and the Snyder Cut Movement
Had Henry Cavill’s moustache been masked more convincingly and had the reshoots produced a more well-liked Justice League movie, the push for the Snyder Cut would have had a lot of wind taken out of its sails. Snyder’s fans would probably have made efforts to rally for it, and Snyder himself would likely have eventually made clear that the finished product was not his film.
However, the push for the Snyder Cut was also partially based on how evident it was that the first ever cinematic Justice League movie had been morphed into an abomination (with a lot of very ugly stories of behind-the-scenes abuse, as well.) Henry Cavill’s moustache was the red flag that something was very rotten in Denmark, compelling Snyder’s fans to dig deep into the movie’s retooling and make their calls loud enough to gain mainstream attention and support. Without this, the Snyder Cut might have been looking at more of a Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut timeframe of being eventually released over 20 years after the fact, if ever.
Henry Cavill’s moustache might have helped kill Justice League, but it also was instrumental in saving Zack Snyder’s Justice League – a paradoxical CGI misfire the world should remain eternally grateful for.
Tell us, do you think Henry Cavill’s moustache saved Justice League? Also, do you think Zack Snyder needs a stronger writing team and is a better director than anyone at Marvel?
