‘Black Adam’ was rated R, once upon a time

We’re a few short days away from the theatrical release of Black Adam, which has scored itself a PG-13 rating. As it turns out, this has only been the case for a short while – we could have ended up with a much more brutal live-action depiction of the DC anti-hero.

The production team behind Dwayne Johnson’s comic book hero debut had to wrestle back and forth a fait bit with the MPAA in order to find a healthy middle ground in which they could depict the character’s signature violence without overly watering it down. 

Black Adam producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia spoke to Collider about the conundrum, and the compromises that needed to be made. 

“We really wanted to make sure that we honored 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. So we always went into this knowing that we were going to push it as far as we did. We knew it was going to be a collaborative process with the MPAA to finally get it to where we were able, to get that rating, but we were able to pull it off. But it was really important for us to do that. And that’s something Dwayne was very committed to as well.”

Garcia and Flynn discussed how a certain number of scenes needed to be amended or cut to make the PG-13 certification happen. 

Flynn did not rule out the possibility of bringing the grittier unabridged cut to the small screen once the film finishes its run in cinemas, however they told the publication this was something to discuss further down the track after seeing how the movie performs in the box office.

Even if it does flop, you’ll be happy to know that Dwayne Johnson has a pretty solid backup plan.

Black Adam is set to bring his violent brand of justice to cinema screens on Oct 21.