Black Adam Was Initially Rated R, According to Producers

Black Adam is known for being violent, executing his enemies in his own form of justice. This is quite the contrast to most heroes, as characters like Batman and Superman do everything in their power to avoid intentional casualties. However, Dwayne Johnson’s titular character is far from the average hero, and that’s what comic book fans have come to expect.

During an interview with Collider, producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia discuss the upcoming DCEU film and reveal how Black Adam initially received an R rating from the MPAA. The crew wanted to feature an accurate depiction of the source material, which includes plenty of violence.

“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.”

Of course, the hope for a PG-13 rating is no surprise, as Black Adam is rumored to have a budget reaching the $200 million mark. Warner Bros. wants as many people as possible to see the film, which forced a few edits regarding the more brutal scenes.

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Black Adam Producers Say They Didn’t Cut Out Any Scenes

Warner Bros. Pictures

Despite the early R rating, Flynn and Garcia say they didn’t compromise their vision. The film required heavy editing to eliminate some gruesome kills from Johnson’s character, however, they kept every scene they deemed essential to the movie. During their Collider interview, they spoke about bringing down the rating while keeping the incredible moments.

“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 a 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.”

Black Adam is nearly ready for release, with the first set of reviews pouring in last week. So far, fans seem to be in love with the action-packed film, calling the movie a spectacle with impressive set pieces, with Johnson born to play the titular role. Fans can see the long-awaited DCEU film when Black Adam arrives in theaters on Oct. 21.

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