Henry Cavill says Justice League’s marketing of Superman was “ridiculous”

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The ending of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN left fans a bit shocked after the Man of Steel (Henry Cavill) sacrificed himself to stop Doomsday from destroying everything, taking a big stab to the chest. This acted as a cliffhanger of sorts going into last year’s JUSTICE LEAGUE, with the studio trying to keep the character’s return a mystery. But, was it really a mystery? The actor was on the press tour and at promotional events, and even Cavill thinks keeping Superman out of the marketing was a little ridiculous.

"Well, that whole concept was faintly ridiculous and I honestly believe everyone viewed it as such,” the actor said to Empire (full quotes via ComicBookMovie).  “Of course, if I'm on the press tour I'm in the movie. Obviously, you knew, and that was a different little tap dance we danced together. But for the audience, I wanted to leave some mystery. I think it's important to have some mystery in movies these days."

The promotion of LEAGUE favored heroes like Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and The Flash (Ezra Miller), but left hints of Superman’s return in the shadows. Most fans assumed he would be back to help the heroes fight Steppenwolf, a fact that came abundantly clear when Cavill accompanied the cast during promo events and interviews. Fans could connect the dots, especially because, seriously, why the hell would you ever do a Justice League movie without Superman?

An even more ridiculous factor of Superman’s presence in LEAGUE has to do with the infamous mustache issue, wherein Cavill had his facial hair digitally cut out in the movie to disastrous results. He had to keep the ‘stache for his new movie, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, and couldn’t shave it for the extensive LEAGUE reshoots (which cost around $25 million). Cavill finally opened up about the matter, saying it was an unfortunate, unavoidable circumstance.

I was slightly surprised. When we decided to go for the mustache, I certainly wasn't expecting all the events to unfold as they were going to unfold. I wasn't expecting Justice League reshoots to be as extensive as they were. When it came to that, it was one of those things where I'm in the middle of another movie, and to change my look for a movie that should have finished already becomes a real problem. And as you will see when the movie comes out, to have a fake mustache on would not have been a possibility. You'll think, 'Okay, yeah, a fake mustache would perhaps have been blown off in this situation.' Unfortunately, it led to much dismay when Justice League came out, but that's the nature of these things. You can't win every time.

In the end, JUSTICE LEAGUE got mediocre reviews and disappointed at the box office coming in $229 million domestically, the lowest-grossing DCEU effort yet. When looking back on it all, though, Cavill sees it as a lesson in filmmaking saying, "I think all these things have their place and their time. There are many reasons why the audience have responded in the way they responded. It's all lessons learned."

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT and Cavill's mustache arrive July 27.