The DCEU is back on the big screen with Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson. The new film is clearly setting the stage for the next phase of the shared universe. With that in mind, the film was released with a PG-13 rating. As it turns out, however, Black Adam originally received an R-rating.
This was revealed via Collider when they spoke with producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia. For those that have seen the film, they know just how violent the project is. But because Black Adam was originally even more violent, it had an R-rating for most of its production.
This was all explained in the following statement:
“We really wanted to make sure that we honored the character of Black Adam. One of the things he’s known for is his aggression and violence, and to do a Black Adam movie that didn’t have that just wouldn’t have been authentic. So we always went into this knowing that we were going to push it as far as we did. We knew it was going to be a collaborative process with the MPAA to finally get it to where we were able, to get that rating, but we were able to pull it off. But it was really important for us to do that. And that’s something Dwayne was very committed to as well.”
They further explained the editing process which brought the film back to a PG-13 rating. It turns out they had to trim quite a few scenes.
“We did have to make a lot of edits, actually. There are some personal moments that we really love, but we had to let them go. But we never compromised, we never had to cut a scene. We had some really cool moments, and if you notice, there are some great moments when Black Adam is in the fly bike chase sequence and drops one of the intergang soldiers. Then there’s this great moment where the truck bounces over the body. But those are moments that you need and remember in these movies, you know what I mean? You can’t play it safe, and you have to go for it. And I think we have four or five of those. At one point we had about ten, and we were able to find some compromise with the MPAA on that.”
If you’re disappointed that Black Adam no longer has a R-rating attached, there’s always a possibility that the home video release will contain most of the extra content. So we’ll just have to see what comes out from the film moving forward. In the meantime, it’s great to see that the film is finally out in theaters. Hopefully we’ll find out if the PG-13 rating the film was ultimately released with will pay off.
Jaume Collet-Serra directed the film from a screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani.
Dwayne Johnson stars in the film as the titular character. The cast also includes Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. Marwan Kenzari, James Cusati-Moyer, Bodhi Sabongui, Mo Amer, and Uli Latukefu also appear in the film.
Fans are finally able to see Dwayne Johnson’s take on Black Adam on the big screen. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the film as we have them.