Zack Snyder Reveals the Stupid Reason Batman v Superman Kept Getting Rated R

The strange story of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice just keeps getting stranger, as Zack Snyder has revealed more details about why his Man of Steel sequel kept getting hit with an R-rating initially – and it’s pretty ridiculous…

During a panel for Batman v Superman at SnyderCon 2023, Zack Snyder and VFX supervisor John Des Jardin gave some deeper background information on their battle with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over getting a PG-13 rating for Dawn of Justice: 

Why Batman v Superman Was Originally Rated R, Explained

As Des Jardin recalls, the MPAA was hounding them about the most minute details of how violence was depicted in the film – not surprisingly, a lot of it had to do with Ben Affleck’s Batman: 

“Remember when you kept coming back to me, saying… ‘ The MPAA wants us to take… remember, we couldn’t do the blood splat on the wall for the crate?” Des Jardin said to Snyder. “But we kept taking all those things out, and it was still getting an R-rating. And then you got that note from them: ‘Well, we just think that Batman’s too mean to Superman.’ And we were like, ‘Can you really comment on that?’”

Movie Censors Hated Batman & Superman Fighting

Indeed, Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman (and Sndyer’s depiction of the Dark Knight) seemed to really rub the MPAA the wrong way and became a big point of contention for the film (shocker!). In fact, the entire premise of Batman and Superman engaging in a serious fight with each other onscreen seemed to upset the MPAA: 

“They were just like, ‘We think it’s rude that they’re fighting.’” Snyder explained. “And I was like, ‘I’m sorry, it’s in the title…’”

Snyder went on to describe how the MPAA kept claiming different parts of Batman v Superman needed stricter ratings:

“‘Yeah, this is an NC-17. This is an X.’ Yeah, ‘Is there any way you can cut them fighting? How about they just team up and like each other? How about that? … Maybe, they like argue at the first act, but then they shake hands, and then like they fight the bad guy together.’ I go, ‘Well, they kind of fight the bad guy together at the end. Didn’t you see that?’ And they’re like, ‘Ah, well, there’s a lot of fighting before that.’”

For Snyder Fans, this anecdote is likely to spark more backlash against the studio (and now the censors) who ultimately turned Batman v Superman’s theatrical cut into a hack job. Granted, the reduced level of violence wasn’t the only problem the theatrical cut had – the edited-down version of Snyder’s story didn’t appease either hardcore fans or casual moviegoers.

Batman v Superman’s theatrical cut ended up being enough of a mess that Warner Bros. ended up releasing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition, honoring Snyder’s full three-hour vision of the film. 

You can stream Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on (HBO) Max. 

Source: via The Direct