Credit: DC / Warner Bros.Zack Snyder officially held his SnyderCon in Pasadena, California, from April 28-30. During the three-day event, convention patrons were part of screeners for Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021). Naturally, Snyder was in attendance to engage in Q&A sessions after each film. During the Q&A for Batman v Superman, Snyder revealed the reasoning behind the DC film getting Rated R many times.
Related: Zack Snyder Gets Candid About ‘Batman V Superman’s Negative Reception
Though the SnyderVerse was the biggest thing that DC had ever done, it was also subject to plenty of controversy. The issue was that it appeared DC was attempting to catch up to the MCU, which never worked out. Snyder was a huge proponent of this, as he fast-tracked the story for DC into creating the Justice League. However, before that could happen, Batman v Superman happened. This pivotal film acted as the catalyst to bring together Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg into a full-fledged team.
While the film’s tone was dark, as for most Zack Snyder ventures, the original cut could not fight off getting an R rating from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). While the Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition was R-rated for many scenes of violence, those scenes were not part of the original cut shown to the MPAA.
During the Q&A for Batman v Superman, Zack Snyder explained why his film kept getting notes from the MPAA.
MPAA Wanted Batman and Superman to Be Nice
Zack Snyder revealed that the MPAA had issues with the original cut, mainly because of some blood splatter on a crate during the scene with Batman. That is understandable. The usual case for PG-13 movies is not to contain grotesque violence. However, they also had issues with Batman and Superman fighting with one another, which is the real reason the film got the R-rating.
Snyder said, “Yeah, I didn’t think that was in your domain to just not like the idea of them fighting, and so now it’s R… They were just like, ‘We think it’s rude that they’re fighting.’ And I was like, ‘I’m sorry, it’s in the title…’ ‘Yeah, this is an NC-17. This is an X.’ Yeah, ‘Is there any way you can cut them fighting? How about they just team up and like each other?’ How about that?.”
The MPAA was offended that the titular heroes were fighting one another, despite it plainly stating they would in the film’s title. We understand that seeing heroes go after one another might seem unnerving, but it’s not enough reason to give a film an R-rating. What’s odd is Captain America: Civil War also came out in 2016, but the MPAA did not have an issue with all those heroes fighting one another.
Related: Ben Affleck is the Biggest Zack Snyder Fan of All Time
Now that the new era of DC has started and Zack Snyder is moving on, he has shared some more intimate details about his former universe with the world. At least he can be proud of what he accomplished, despite making people angry every step of the way.
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