8 Superheroes That Should Go R-Rated Next

8) Batman

If Hollywood ever wants a Batman movie that reflects some of the grungier later comics, the studios need only look to Darren Aronofsky. The Noah and Black Swan director was for a time developing his own Batman project before Christopher Nolan came along, and while Nolan definitely took a more grounded approach than previous Bat-directors, nothing in his Dark Knight trilogy comes close to the family-unfriendly story Aronofsky was planning.

In Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One (adapted from the comic by Frank Miller, who thought that Aronofsky’s concept was too dark), Catwoman works in a brothel, Alfred is a hard-ass mechanic and Bruce Wayne is a penniless orphan.

There’s a noir-ish voiceover. There are F-bombs and hardcore violence. Jim Gordon is suicidal and Bruce is on medication for mental health issues. It could never have been made in the early 00s when the script was written, but now? Warner Bros. needs to start dialling Aronofsky for their next Batman standalone.