In the eyes of the public at least, Dwayne Johnson is arguably viewed as more of a brand than a person these days. The 48 year-old has dedicated himself to building his own persona that’s positioned him as the most popular and highest-paid star in the industry, one who can always be relied on to deliver solid box office returns while shining as a relentlessly positive, optimistic, down to earth and relatable example of how dreams come true if you put the work in, given his relatively humble origins.
As a result, he very rarely ventures outside of his wheelhouse as the leading man of effects-driven PG-13 blockbusters, having found his niche a decade ago after struggling in the early years of his Hollywood career as he bounced between underwhelming actioners and turgid family films. In fact, Michael Bay’s R-rated comic thriller Pain & Gain and crime drama Snitch are the only times he hasn’t been in his action hero comfort zone in the last decade, something that’s not going to change anytime soon.
However, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Ben Affleck would be returning as Batman in The Flash long before it was confirmed – that he wants Black Adam to push the boundaries of the PG-13 rating as far as possible when it comes to the heightened comic book violence.
Plenty of action movies have suffered from watering themselves down, but in theory, Black Adam doesn’t face the same issues. As a cosmic fantasy, there’s plenty of creative leeway when it comes to crafting the set pieces, meaning it could get away with more violence if it remains of a sufficiently fantastical nature so as not to risk the wrath of the MPAA. There’s no chance it’ll be R-rated, but aliens can conceivably be torn limb from limb in a grisly fashion and explode in a burst of brightly colored goo without being censored.
