BLACK ADAM tells the origin story of the titular antihero, one of the most powerful meta-humans of the DC universe who will “alter the balance of power in the DC Extended Universe”.
However, fans watching Dwayne Johnson’s superhero debut may be stunned by the film’s intended amount of violence.
Producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia revealed to Collider that Black Adam initially received an R-rating, and said it took four rounds of cuts for the Motion Picture Association of America to agree to lower it to the team’s targeted PG-13 rating.
“We really wanted to make sure that we honoured the character of Black Adam,” Garcia said.
“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,” he added.
Flynn then added: “It took four rounds [with the MPAA], and [the movie] just got the PG-13, I think, maybe four or five weeks ago.”
How much of the film needed to be cut? “We did have to make a lot of edits, actually,” Flynn answers.
According to the producer, the original version of the film featured Dwayne Johnson’s character murdering up to ten people. Flynn added that to achieve a PG-13 rating, the production reduced this amount to approximately five.
Black Adam is currently showing in theatres.
