During the recent Full Circle event, director Zack Snyder and visual effects supervisor John ‘D.J.’ Des Jardin revealed the reasoning behind the original Batman v Superman R rating.
What caused the original Batman v Superman R rating?
As part of one of the event’s Q&As, Des Jardin got on the topic of the Motion Picture Association of America giving the superhero movie an R rating. According to him, it all came down to Batman being “too mean” to Superman.
“We couldn’t do the blood splat on the wall for the crate, but we kept taking all those things out, and it was still getting an R-rating,” Des Jardin said (via The Direct). “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?'”
Snyder gave his opinion on the rating as well, describing his discussions with the MPAA about the film’s content.
“Yeah, I didn’t think that was in your domain to just not like the idea of them fighting and so now it’s R… They were just like, ‘We think it’s rude that they’re fighting.’ And I was like, ‘I’m sorry, it’s in the title,’” Snyder explained. “‘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 there’ll like, ’Ah, well, there’s a lot of fighting before that.”
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice first released in 2016. Directed by Zack Snyder and written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer, the movie would go on to receive a director’s cut release, which had an R rating and a minute longer runtime than the theatrical cut by 31 minutes.
