Aiming for consistency across the board, DC and Warner Bros. have confirmed that, at least for now, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and other high-profile entries into the DC Expanded Universe will adhere to a PG-13 rating.
That includes both David Ayer’s Suicide Squad and Justice League, Zack Snyder’s two-part ensemble piece, ensuring that all superhero films released by WB can maintain a similar sense of tone without venturing into R-rated territory.
However, that’s not to say that every PG-13 rating is set in stone; as celebrated DC producer Charles Roven points out in an in interview with Collider, there may be some leeway depending on the reaction of some of the more radical entires into the genre arriving in the next two to three years – read: Deadpool.
“Right now the movies that we’re making, the movies that have been announced by Warner Bros., I would say those are all intended to be PG-13 movies. I can’t tell you something may not come out of left field or we might get inspired to develop a different character, but the ones that are in front of us right now through [Justice League 2 are] PG-13.”
Sticking to the tried and tested formula, it’s a strategy that aligns with Roven’s previous comments regarding Suicide Squad‘s rating, which is one that now blankets the DC Expanded Universe for the foreseeable future.
The intention of the film is definitely to be PG-13… We really want to make these films tonally consistent so that, as I said because this is a shared universe, at least our current thinking—and again, we’re not dealing in absolutes because while this is business it’s also a creative endeavor, so you want to leave yourself open to changing your mind, doing something different, being inspired, that’s the whole process of filmmaking is you have to allow for inspiration as well as having a road map for what you’re gonna do. So our plan right now is to make all these films PG-13. In some cases, you know, right there on the edge of PG-13, but still PG-13.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice will ease the DC Expanded Universe into motion when it touches down on March 25, 2016.
