Well, for all those out there who think that one of the greatest sins of ‘Justice League’ was all the CGI work done to Henry Cavill’s face to hide his ‘Mission: Impossible 6’ mustache (which I personally was fine with as the movie had way bigger problems than a CGI shave), apparently Warner Bros did everything they could to get mitigate that particular situation.
The problem was that Cavill was already at work on another film, ‘M:I 6’ for Paramount, which required the mustache, and Paramount would not allow him to shave. And according to Reddit user LDN_Film, who apparently was a visual effects artist on ‘Justice League,’ Warner Bros even approached Paramount with a compromise. Warner Bros did some test footage wherein they digitally added a mustache to Cavill’s face, showing/ explaining to Paramount how much easier it would be to add facial hair than to remove it, and even offering to do the work (i.e. pay for it), all of which was still shot down by Paramount, which is why Cavill had to keep that mustache going into the ‘Justice League’ reshoots with Joss Whedon.
According to ‘M:I 6’ director Christopher McQuarrie, fans will understand his reasoning for not allowing Cavill to shave the mustache once the latest iteration of the spy thriller franchise premieres next year, though many might still be bitter that the 5th sequel to a fledgling franchise took precedence over a film like ‘Justice League,’ which many fans have waited decades to finally see up on the big screen.
Regardless of what role the facial hair might play in ‘M:I 6,’ it does seem a bit odd that Paramount would not be willing to come to some sort of arrangement, but then again, the reshoots for ‘Justice League’ were not something they expected to be so essential, and there’s a chance Paramount may not have wanted to risk their own franchise for the benefit of another studio. Luckily, Cavill and company seem to have kept a good attitude about what they have dubbed the “mustache fiasco,” with Cavill poking fun at it publicly and even Ben Affleck addressing the issue with some humor while on the press tour for the film. And for fans curious about Whedon’s changes to the film, spotting the CGI Superman face does help them figure out which Superman scenes were part of the reshoots and which ones were part of Snyder’s original movie.
What are your thoughts on this whole mustache issue? Should Paramount have allowed Cavill to shave? Or after having seen the disappointment that was ‘Justice League,’ do you think they were right in not compromising their own movie for the middling DCEU? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
