Though Justice League is already three years old and most fans have put it behind them, some people are still talking about mustachegate like it happened yesterday, and for good reason. Henry Cavill’s Superman and his infamously CGI-ed mustache was cringeworthy, to say the least.
Because it's been a point of contention for so long, fans over at the Jarkan YouTube channel took the liberty of fixing the Man of Steel's stiff upper lip with a deepfake, and the results are fairly interesting. Check it out:
While the video claims the CGI problem has been “fixed,” it looks to me like they just sharpened his face and gave it more definition. It’s an improvement, but some of the lighting problems still exist. It’s hard to say if anyone would have been fooled by it in the theaters.
This new video goes to show that superhero snafus rarely ever die. Ryan Reynolds, a man who knows the pain of botched superhero films, poked fun at Henry Cavill’s Superman mustache with a video promoting his Aviation Gin company. In the video, Reynolds wears a mustache and asks if drinking gin makes one feel like a superhero. He takes a drink from a mug and when the mug comes down, his mustache has been removed via CGI.
Even Zack Snyder threw shade at mustachegate on his Vero channel. On his account, he posted a picture of his facial hair, saying, “Guess I gotta shave this thing.” Someone replied that he could remove it with CGI and he quipped, “We all know that doesn’t work.” Ouch.
Of course, Zack Snyder is aware of the many problems Justice League faced, which included his only untimely departure from the project due to a family emergency. Since the film's theatrical release, DC fans have been demanding a Snyder Cut of the movie, a different interpretation of the movie that many hope will rectify mistakes like mustachegate.
One would think that Henry Cavill would want to distance himself from the franchise after everything that transpired with Justice League. However, despite the the film's issues and the scrapped plans for the DCEU, it appears that Cavill still wants to keep playing Superman. Though he's less interested in continuing Justice League's and more focused on continuing the story that began in Man of Steel.
After everything he's been through with the franchise, Henry Cavill deserves props for wanting to stick it out. I don’t think anyone would blame him for hanging up his cape and calling it a day. And if he does get another chance to leap over tall buildings in a single bound, here’s hoping he can do it without the mustache, and one that hopefully doesn't need to be altered by deepfakes.
