Superman’s Official Rating Continues a Trend for the Man of Steel

Superman has its official MPA rating — PG-13. The superhero movie launching the new DC Universe franchise is not going too dark and gritty, but neither is it keeping things tame to attract a family audience. According to the Classification and Ratings Administration, Superman has been rated PG-13 “for violence, action, and language.” While fans are generally expecting a brighter, more cheerful rendition of Kal-El here, this will actually be the fifth Superman movie in a row to receive this rating — nearly all of them since the MPA added PG-13 to its options. Thankfully, there are plenty of other things to set this movie apart from the DCEU.

Both fans and Warner Bros. Pictures executives were reluctant to see DC Comics screen adaptations rebooted once again, but ultimately, the DCU was created with the promise of more faithful renditions of all these characters. That was especially important for Superman fans, many of whom disliked the grim, wrathful arc the character was on in the DCEU. Still, whatever Superman holds for us when it premieres on July 11th, it’s not different enough to change the PG-13 rating.

The MPA officially added the PG-13 rating in 1984 due to parental concerns over depictions of violence and danger on screen at the time. The Superman film series was in a period of transition at the time, and its only movie to come out after PG-13 was an option was Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It was rated PG — perhaps because of the toned-down content, or simply because the rating was still relatively new.

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When Clark Kent returned to the big screen in 2006 for Superman Returns, he landed on a PG-13 rating, and he’s stayed there ever since. Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League all got the rating as well, though the director’s cut of Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League were both rated R. Even Black Adam — where Superman made a brief cameo — was rated PG-13, and it was edited specifically to meet that standard.

In fairness, the prevalence of R-rated superhero movies is a relatively new phenomenon. In 2016, Deadpool‘s success in spite of its R rating was considered a big surprise, and many of the movies that accepted an R after that were presumed to be following suit. Still, big crossovers with blockbuster titles were generally reigned in to PG-13, so it’s no surprise that the quintessential DC hero Superman never made it into an R-rated theatrical cut.

The range of PG-13 rated movies is so broad that it’s hard to say what kind of balance the DCU will strike, but we’ll see for ourselves soon enough. Superman hits theaters on July 11th.