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After years of fan campaigns, Zack Snyder was finally able to release Justice League the way he originally intended. The filmmaker seems quite pleased with this fact, especially considering that the 2017 theatrical cut was a far cry from what he envisioned for Warner Bros. and DC’s superhero team-up movie. The 2017 movie had more than its fair share of problems, but one that fans will likely remember for all time is the infamous “mustachegate.” The situation involved Henry Cavill getting a CGI lip to cover up his mustache during reshoots, and the result was both odd and a bit scary. Now, Snyder has confirmed that this very thing was one of the reasons he wanted to get his own movie out into the world.
Zack Snyder has actually yet to see the 2017 version of Justice League, but that doesn’t mean he’s unaware of the controversy -- and computer graphics -- that surrounded Henry Cavill’s upper lip. The filmmaker became familiar with the situation through the memes that surfaced online at the time and, during his recent chat with MTV News, he shared some interesting thoughts on the matter:
I've only seen it in memes. It was funny because part of me is happy that we were able to have that not be the total legacy of the hard work that he had done over the last ten years, you know? It's sad to think that that could have been the last view that people had of Superman was with that, whatever that is.
Most would probably agree that a Superman with a stiff upper lip would have been an unflattering image of the Man of Steel. At this point in time, Henry Cavill’s future in the role is pretty uncertain so, if Zack Snyder’s Justice League had not seen the light of day, that could have very well been the final time we ever saw Cavill’s version of the character. In that respect, fans owe Zack Snyder’s Justice League a great deal of gratitude.
As many probably remember, Henry Cavill had a mustache during Justice League reshoots due to his role in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The situation was highly publicized ahead of the film’s release, but it truly became a sensation when audiences saw the CGI’d work for themselves. The responses to Superman’s face were plentiful and varied, with some taking to the web to poke fun and others doing what they could to fix it.
And viewers certainly didn’t forget the situation when Mission: Impossible - Fallout hit theaters the following year. Some fan reviews even humorously analyzed the role Henry Cavill’s mustache had to play in the action film.
In all seriousness though, justice was appropriately done to Henry Cavill and his face in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It’s true that the original 2017 look is hard to shake from one’s mind, but Snyder and his collaborators certainly did enough to wipe the slate (and upper lip) clean.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now available to stream on HBO Max, which you can sign up for using this link.
