During a 2013 interview, and as part of the “Man of Steel” press tour, Henry Cavill shared he held a very specific reason for maintaining body hair during his tenure as Superman — not to forgo the arduous task of shaving or waxing (although it would be difficult to blame him if that had somehow factored into the decision process) but rather to feature a little bit more comic accuracy. Specifically, Cavill said:
“It’s something which I wanted to do because in the comic book, ‘[The] Death of Superman,’ there’s this bit where his costume’s ripped, and he’s making the ultimate sacrifice, and he’s got this hairy chest. And I was like, ‘Okay, why is the perception that because he’s muscly he must have no body hair?’ And I thought, ‘Why can’t we just do that, like it is in the comic books?’ So, we did.”
A quick Google confirms that “The Death of Superman,” the comic which Cavill is referencing here and the loose inspiration for the ending of Zack Snyder’s “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice,” is literally bursting with Kryptonian body hair. Good ol’ Supes’ trademark tights get shredded while he does battle against Doomsday and, wherever the suit falls away, the illustrators drew Clark Kent with the kind of follicle genetics that would make even Gaston froth at the mouth.