Justice League: How Much Work Will it Take to Remove Cavill's Mustache?

Not as easy as you might think.

By Lucy O'Brien

Digitally removing the mustache Henry Cavill can't shave off despite needing to appear as a clean-shaven Superman in Justice League is going to take a lot of work.

Business Insider spoke to two VFX artists about the process of removing Cavill's mustache, which the actor is contractually obliged to keep while shooting Mission Impossible 6. The amount of work it will take to remove it depends on how much Cavill will be moving around in any given scene, according to Dave Fleet, the Head of 3D, and Anne Trotman, Lead 2D Artist at The Mill.

“If the head moves in perspective, this would need to be achieved with 3D and 2D techniques," said Trotman. "If the talent is facing the camera straight-on, we can use 2D techniques.”

Fleet explained the time frame required to edit the mustache out: one week to make the 3D elements, another three weeks to track, animate, and render the shaven face, "and another two weeks to composite it all together.”

According to Fleet, that's six weeks to edit a mustache out and about 25 weeks to edit it out of a five minute clip. A source told Business Insider such work would come at "a huge cost."

Cavil took to Instagram recently to address the issue of the mustache, albeit cheekily.

"Dear followers, it is time to finally set the record straight in this moustache fiasco," he wrote. "Pictured above, is not a set on MI6 but is in fact the latest in a series of weapons being designed by Warner Bros and Paramount Studios to combat the entity known as "Henry Cavill's Moustache". There has been no discussion over whether to shave or not to shave for the JL reshoots, simply a relentless campaign to put an end to the seemingly inexorable conquest of this despotic 'stache. It is not a question of IF I should shave - it is a question of how can we possibly be victorious against such a beast without bringing our own doom raining down upon us."

Justice League reshoots have cost reported $25 million and have gone on for two months, in part due to scheduling conflicts for the cast.

Lucy O'Brien is Games & Entertainment Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. Follow her on Twitter.

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