We thought the drama surrounding Henry Cavill’s multi-million dollar mustache ended when the actor shaved the damn thing off earlier this year. Alas, such was not the case. Not only will it haunt any future screenings of Justice League, which will forever find Superman’s upper lip afflicted by uncanny shadows, but it continues to pervade our news cycle, which is still recovering from the story of how Paramount, the studio behind Mission: Impossible—Fallout, wouldn’t allow Cavill to shave his mustache, thus forcing Warner Bros. to erase the strip for its Justice League reshoots. It was a mess, one that Cavill has tried to make light of by calling the mustache a “beast.”
We thought he was kidding when he asked how “we can possibly be victorious against such a beast without bringing or own doom raining raining down upon us,” but maybe that was no joke at all. Earlier this week, a Twitter user shared a GIF from the latest Mission Impossible trailer that just might prove the mustache is not only sentient, but capable of reproducing wildly, seemingly in sync with Cavill’s masculinity.
Look closely and you’ll see that, once Cavill enters into fight mode, his mustache magically turns into a full beard, the better with which to protect his face. In recent interviews, Cavill himself has said that a fake mustache “would not have been a possibility,” but that he couldn’t spill the beans until Fallout’s release.
Sure, there’s plenty of other, more logical explanations here, such as a trick of the light or a post-production snafu. Or, as was pointed out by a fellow Twitterer, there’s the possibility that the mustache is motivated by pure, unfiltered adrenaline.
We’ll find out for sure when Fallout hits theaters on July 27th. In the meantime, check out the latest trailer for more clues.