Of course Zach Snyder’s Justice League is rated R

Photo: Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck and Ezra Miller in Justice League (2017).. Image Courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment
Photo: Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck and Ezra Miller in Justice League (2017).. Image Courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment

Zach Snyder’s Justice League, also known as the Snyder Cut, will arrive on HBO Max in March. The movie/series (we’re still not quite sure how it’ll be released) will run for four hours, with lots of footage we didn’t see in the theatrical cut either because it just wasn’t used or because Snyder hadn’t shot it yet.

This movie looks like it will come straight from Zach Snyder’s brain to the screen, right down to the use of “Hallelujah” in the trailer. And that also means Superman saying “f**k.” Maybe. All we really know is that the movie is officially rated R “for violence and some language,” according to a note on the MPAA’s website.

Zach Snyder’s movies always lived on the edgier side of life, whether it’s zombies eviscerating humans in Dawn of the Dead, Spartans eviscerating Persians in 300, or…well, I guess The Owls of Ga’Hoole was pretty tame.

Zach Snyder’s Justice League was always going to be intense

Snyder’s DCEU superhero movies have been PG-13, but you always got the idea that was because Warner Bros. required them to be. For a while, there was a feeling that making an R-rated superhero movie would mean giving up a lot of potential box office revenue, since it would no longer appeal to families. But Warner Bros. blew the doors off that assumption with its own Joker, an R-rated origin story for the famous Batman villain that made over a billion dollars at the box office.

With that precedent in place, all bets are off. Sure, make an R-rated Justice League. Have Wonder Woman punch out someone’s sternum or whatever’s going to happen. I always got the feeling that’s the kind of thing Snyder wanted to do with these characters anyway. And it’s on streaming, so there’s no danger of losing out on ticket sales.

Zach Snyder’s Justice League arrives on HBO Max on March 18.

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h/t Screen Crush