It seems like Black Adam was almost too powerful. According to Collider, the newest DC superhero film showed the antihero killing so many people that the MPAA refused to give it a PG-13 rating until after four rounds of cuts had been made.
While an R rating is certainly not unheard of for superhero films (remember the ‘90s, when both Blade and Spawn got R-ratings?) most massive-blowout budget films tend to aim for PG-13 in order to attract the widest audience possible. Regardless, producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia spoke with Collider about the need to push Black Adam as far as the MPAA would be willing to go, and thus submitted the film four times before achieving the PG-13 rating: “We really wanted to make sure that we honoured 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.”
Both Flynn and Garcia said that they worked hard to not cut whole scenes. They had to sacrifice some “personal moments” but they kept in a pretty gruesome cut where Black Adam drops a man and then has a car bounce off him. Apparently, that’s what really matters in a superhero movie.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.