Why Henry Cavill Didn't Support The Release The Snyder Cut Movement On Justice League's Anniversary

Henry Cavill as Superman in Justice League

Last month, on the two-year anniversary of Justice League’s theatrical release, Snyder Cut fans banded together online in a tremendous show of support for Warner Bros releasing a version of the superhero team-up movie that better reflects director Zack Snyder’s original vision. Even people who worked on Justice League, like Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck, got involved, but Henry Cavill, a.k.a. the DC Extended Universe’s Superman, did not join them because he didn’t want to reflect on a significant loss in his life: his glorious mustache.

When recently asked if there was a particular reason he didn’t join his Justice League costars in tweeting about the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, Henry Cavill responded:

I wouldn’t say there’s any particular reason. I, it’s… I mean, I miss my mustache. Which is the most important thing. And for me it was just a harrowing reminder that I didn’t have it anymore. And so I just didn’t want to dig that wound any deeper.

Ah, Henry Cavill’s infamous mustache. Grown for his role as August Walker in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the facial hair looked quite good on the actor, but it went on to play a role in Justice League’s downfall. While he doesn’t plan on regrowing the mustache anytime soon, Cavill has said that he learned to love it and enjoyed the media attention it received. As he laid out while speaking to Fox 32 News’ and ReelBlend cohost Jake Hamilton, taking part in the Snyder Cut movement would have just made him reflect on his lost, hairy comrade, and he didn’t feel like doing that.

While it brought joy to Henry Cavill and so many others, anyone remotely familiar with the making of Justice League knows that it caused a significant problem. Cavill was clean-shaven during Justice League’s principal photography, and once that was finished, he grew the mustache and started working on Mission: Impossible - Fallout. However, Justice League’s reshoots ended up occurring as Fallout was still filming, and Cavill was not allowed to shave the mustache and don a fake one/have a new one filled in with CGI for the remainder of the Fallout shoot.

As a result, the Justice League crew digitally removed Henry Cavill’s mustache from all the reshoot scenes, and the end result… did not look good, to put it lightly. Cavill admitted that he he known the mustache would be problematic for Justice League, he would have made a different choice for August Walker’s look, but hindsight is 20/20. Ultimately though, the CGI mustache removal was just one of the issues that plagued Justice League.

As for his overall feelings about the Snyder Cut, here’s what Henry Cavill told Kevin McCarthy, one of ReelBlend’s other cohosts:

I have not seen any Snyder Cut. I don’t know if there’s anything that exists that is a Snyder Cut. I’m sure there’s footage out there which has probably been pieced together over the years. I’m always interested to see how stuff like that turns out, but that is very much a chapter of my past. I’d rather talk about what is gonna happen in the future. The future of Superman, how I can express that character from the comic books…

So while it doesn’t sound like Henry Cavill is any way opposed to the Snyder Cut being released to the masses, he’s not so much interested in seeing a different version of the Justice League tale, and would rather focus on what can happen next with Superman. Cavill has made it clear that he’s not giving up on playing Superman again, so perhaps he’s talking with certain parties behind closed doors about getting to reprise the Man of Steel.

While November’s #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement certainly raised a lot of awareness, Warner Bros has said there are still no official plans to release the Snyder Cut, either through a traditional home release or as an exclusive offering on soon-to-launch HBO Max. Still, with Zack Snyder continuing to post photos from his time working on Justice League and more celebrities chiming in on the matter, the conversation surrounding the Snyder Cut isn’t dying down anytime soon.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates concerning the Snyder Cut and Henry Cavill’s future as Superman. In the meantime, don’t forget to plan your trips to the theater next year accordingly with our 2020 release schedule.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.