The saga of Henry Cavill's Mission: Impossible - Fallout mustache is winding to a close, so we're recapping the bizarre story. Only in Hollywood can a piece of facial hair cause so much controversy. As many people know by now, Cavill grew a mustache for his role in Fallout, but production on the action sequel overlapped with Justice League reshoots. As a result, Warner Bros. made the curious decision to remove Cavill's mustache digitally, a decision that partially derailed the film. People haven't been able to stop talking about it since - especially after seeing the results.
Now that Fallout is about to hit theaters, Cavill and his infamous mustache are in the news again. While Justice League disappointed critically and commercially, Fallout is being hailed as one of the greatest action movies in years, meaning audiences got one great film out of this whole mess. Before fans close the book on this odyssey, we're recapping the key points of the narrative. Whether you want to relive it all or are new to the story, this is the place to be.
Why Did Henry Cavill Grow A Mustache?
From the sound of things, Cavill was under the impression he had wrapped his role as Superman in Justice League by the time he officially signed for Fallout (he was confirmed in March 2017). In April of that year, he was photographed on-set sporting the infamous facial hair. In a recent interview, Cavill seemed to express regret over the way things turned out, saying he would have gone in a different direction had he known about the Justice League reshoots ahead of time. Warner Bros. had difficulty scheduling all the Justice League actors for additional photography, so they may not have had all the relevant information by the time Cavill was cast in Fallout.
Related: Henry Cavill Would Have Nixed Mustache To Save Justice League
Cavill's mustache was most definitely a stylistic choice and not a character requirement. Prior to filming Fallout, the actor had just finished the film Nomis, where he has long hair and a beard. The actor made the decision to keep the mustache and discussed the look with Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie. They agreed it was befitting of Cavill's Agent Walker, and that was the extent of the conversation. At the time, nobody could have predicted the chaos the mustache would cause, so there was no need to have a more extensive dialogue about it. However, when they decided to go with the mustache, it was locked in for the entirety of production.
Why Henry Cavill Couldn't Shave the Mustache
As fate would have it, Justice League reshoots coincided with Mission: Impossible - Fallout production. Of course, these were not your typical pickups; new director Joss Whedon was tasked with massively overhauling the final product, deviating from Zack Snyder's initial vision. This meant Cavill was required to return to the World of DC and be Superman again, but there was one problem. Kal-El is clean-shaven, and Cavill was contractually obligated to keep his Fallout mustache. Shaving it and wearing a fake for Mission: Impossible was out of the question, due to the physical nature of his role. According to McQuarrie, they would need a "liberal dose of staples" to keep it on.
To his credit, McQuarrie wanted to help Justice League in any way he could. When WB called Cavill in for reshoots, they asked McQuarrie if Cavill could shave the mustache and resume filming Fallout when he grew it back. WB also offered to pay for any CGI needed to digitally add the facial hair (which would have been around $3 million). McQuarrie was willing to go through with it, but Paramount nixed the plan because they were committed to meeting Fallout's scheduled July 2018 release date and didn't want to stop production. The irony, of course, is Tom Cruise's ankle injury forced McQuarrie to shut down for eight weeks, but the timing didn't work out. Because Justice League had its own release date to hit, they had little choice but to resort to desperate measures.
Page 2: CGI Shaving and Mustache Aftermath
Henry Cavill's CGI Upper Lip
Since Paramount rejected WB's offer to add a digital mustache, the Justice League visual effects team moved on to the next best thing: giving Superman a CGI shave. Cavill explained the process while on a press tour, saying the mustache was waxed up and he had dots on his face (serving as reference for post-production). Fortunately, this didn't add much to the already high budget, but it was a ton of extra work for the computer artists. It took about six weeks to complete a one-minute clip, and 25 weeks for a five-minute clip. It was easy for Cavill and his co-stars to laugh about the mini controversy, but for the VFX crew, it was a massive headache they weren't expecting. And since the reshoots took place mere months before Justice League premiered, they were under the gun.
Related: Why Was Superman's CGI-Erased Mustache So Bad?
Unfortunately, the end result was pretty much a disaster. From Justice League's opening scene, audiences could tell something was very off about Cavill's lip. Despite all the resources behind the film, fans were able to do a better job of removing the mustache from their home computers. Frankly, the turn of events was embarrassing for WB, as Superman's lip proved to be distracting every moment he was onscreen. Considering that Cavill basically reshot all of his scenes under Whedon's new direction, it's puzzling that WB didn't opt to have Superman return with facial hair (which, it should be noted, has precedence in the comics). Because of their stubbornness to have the Man of Steel maintain his classic look, WB dug themselves into a hole they never got out of. Cavill's CGI lip will forever live in infamy as a gross miscalculation.
The Mustache Aftermath
Earlier this year, Cavill bid adieu to his mustache and posted a rather humorous postmortem for it on social media. It's nice to see that even with all the trouble it inadvertently caused, the actor was a good sport about it and tried to inject some levity into the situation. He was certainly taken aback by all the talk surrounding the mustache, so it was hard for him not to recognize the ridiculousness of it all. Like many others, Cavill is aware his CGI makeover wasn't flawless, saying, "You can't win every time." Next time there's a Superman appearance in the pipeline, he'll be sure to be clean shaven.
Shifting gears to McQuarrie, he has far less jokes to make about what happened. Understandably, he had to do what was right for Mission: Impossible - Fallout, but he still feels bad about how Justice League turned out. This isn't to say that a fully natural Cavill face would have saved Justice League from the myriad of other issues that plagued it, though it would have been one less stumble for people to mock. Maybe if Cruise's ankle injury happened earlier in production, Paramount would have acquiesced to WB and let Cavill shave. Sadly, we'll never know.
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At the end of the day, the one question at the front of everyone's mind is "was this worth it?" That depends on who you ask. Justice League earned mixed reviews and is the lowest-grossing entry in the DC Extended Universe, so they would probably like a mulligan. From Paramount's perspective, they aren't going to complain about the results. Mission: Impossible - Fallout is receiving stellar reviews and should score the highest box office opening in the franchise's history. As a plus, Cavill is earning raves for his performance, so he'll probably look back at this experience fondly.
