Someone Put Henry Cavill’s Superman Mustache Back Into ‘Justice League’
The theatrical cut of Justice League had a lot of issues. A bizarrely condensed storyline, characters with no motivations, garish colors, a bland villain. Still, out of all the issues, the single most distracting problem was probably hiding in plaint sight, right in the middle of Henry Cavill’s ruggedly handsome face.
That’s because when Cavill returned to reshoot big chunks of Justice League with Zack Snyder‘s replacement, Joss Whedon, he came with a mustache he’d grown for Mission: Impossible — Fallout. And he refused to cut it. (If you saw how good the mustache looked in Fallout, you understand why.) So Cavill reshot half of Justice League with a mouth brow, and then visual effects artists had to paint it out of all his shots. The effect was unconvincing at best and downright eerie at worst.
One of the nice side effects of making Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and restoring Zack Snyder’s vision of the film, is that all the Frankensteined footage of Cavill’s oddly smooth lip from the Whedon cut was removed from the film. The success of the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fan campaign has now inspired the YouTube channel Corridor Crew to start their own Justice League campaign — to get Warner Bros. to release a cut of Justice League with the original raw footage of Cavill as Superman with a big ol’ snot mop. To help make their case, they used deepfakes, compositing, and CGI to create a trailer for this version, which they have dubbed #ReleaseTheMustacheCut. The results are very impressive. See them for yourself below:
This is a great idea. Snyder got his turn to present his true director’s cut, and now it’s only fair that Whedon should get his. Something that’s free from the meddling of pesky Hollywood executives and fussy stylists; something that’s not beholden to the tyranny of studio notes and male grooming products. I can’t imagine anything more powerful or heroic than a Superman who rocks a lip toupée. That’s what real justice looks like.
Until such a thing comes to pass, you can watch Zack Snyder‘s Justice League on HBO Max. Sadly, though, it contains no mustaches.
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