Justice League producer admits Henry Cavill facial VFX wasn't a great choice

Charles Roven, one of the producers on 2016’s Justice League, has admitted that using VFX to remove Henry Cavell’s moustache was not a great idea. The producer made the comments while talking to The Hollywood Reporter about his time working with DC.

The decision was made due to Cavill’s ongoing commitments with Paramount Pictures. At the time the actor starred in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, in which the British actor has a moustache. This wasn’t an issue in the original cut, but the Joss Whedon reshoots meant that several new scenes had to be recorded. 

Justice League reshoots

Roven reflected on the reshoots while talking to The Hollywood Reporter. The producer initially hoped Cavill would shave his beard, but this was quickly shot down by paramount. Instead, the team decided to reshoot the scenes but digitally alter out Cavill’s moustache. 

Roven stated: “We were hoping for Henry to shave his beard. We were very worried that we weren’t going to be able to accomplish that in a way that wasn’t visible. And in fact we were right to be worried about that.”

“It was a decision that was made to protect a release date, all of the promotional partners who were tied into that release date, all of the theaters that had booked things around that release date,” added Roven. 

Read more: James Gunn wanted to make a Batman or Krypto movie

Bad VFX

The results of the VFX were not great, and fans at the time criticised how weird Superman’s mouth looked during dialogue. You can see a clip of the VFX in action below, it's a very uncanny valley kind of moment.

Fans panned Joss Whedon’s original cut of the film and campaigned for a new cut directed by Zach Snyder. Warner Bros. caved to fan pressure, and the Snyder cut of the film was released earlier this to fan praise and mixed ratings from critics. 

Read more: James Gunn almost wrote out a primary The Suicide Squad character