Zack Snyder’s Justice League May Be Rated R Says Director

Director Zack Snyder expects that the new Justice League will be R-rated. The filmmaker has been able to revisit his old DCEU project three years since a different version hit theaters thanks to a mix of fan support and current circumstances. Aside from polishing footage he already filmed during the movie’s principal photography, the four-part series also got extra funding for additional work.

At this point, the tumultuous production of Justice League has been discussed countless times in the last several years. Snyder had to step away from the project, paving the way for Joss Whedon to come in and finish the film, but instead, the interim director made some significant changes that watered down his predecessor’s original plan. This didn’t sit well with fans who immediately began the Release the Snyder Cut movement. Cut to May of 2020, Snyder announced that his iteration of Justice League is finally rolling out, but it will be repurposed for HBO Max and not be traditionally-released in theaters.

No release date has been set for Snyder’s Justice League, but it’s expected to drop on HBO Max sometime next year. When hyping up the project to EW, Snyder said that he fully expects the new project to be rated R. Granted that they haven’t had any feedback from the MPAA, but he said that the additional explicit content will more than likely merit that grade.

“Here’s one piece of information nobody knows: The movie is insane and so epic and is probably rated R — that’s one thing I think will happen, that it will be an R-rated version, for sure. We haven’t heard from the MPAA, but that’s my gut.”

“There’s one scene where Batman drops an F-bomb. Cyborg is not too happy with what’s going on with his life before he meets the Justice League, and he tends to speak his mind. And Steppenwolf is pretty much just hacking people in half. So [the rating would be due to] violence and profanity, probably both.”

Snyder’s DCEU project being too dark has been one of the contentious elements of his movies. While a portion of the fan community dug this edgier spin on the DC superheroes, the general viewing public and some critics weren’t exactly thrilled about it. This translated to mixed reviews, which prompted Warner Bros. to meddle particularly on the heels of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. In fact, Justice League‘s original script was way too dark until Snyder had to rewrite it prior to filming the movie and Whedon getting involved. Recently, the director also talked about his initial design for Steppenwolf and why it was cut from the theatrical cut as it was deemed too scary. With the new version of the narrative releasing on HBO Max, however, not to mention technically not considered canon, Snyder has had more creative leeway with what he wanted to do with it.

Whether or not Snyder’s Justice League will be R-rated is uncertain until an official MPAA grade is revealed. That said, the director’s confidence to float the idea that this could be the case is an indication that he’s able to do a lot of things that he wouldn’t have been able to if the project was released in theaters. As he said, most of the elements that would earn the HBO Max series the R-rating come from additional footage he added.