At this point, can Warner Bros. say no to Zack Snyder? They’ve already given him, and his army of extremely loyal fans, everything they could’ve wanted. The director’s original vision for Justice League is arriving on HBO Max next year as a 4-part series, and the studio has doled out a lot of cash so Snyder can do it his way. A lot of this started as just idle hopes put out there on social media, and now he’s putting something else out there: a possible R-rated cut in theaters.
Speaking with EW, Snyder revealed that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is so out there that it might receive an R-rating from the MPAA…
“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.”
Snyder elaborates, “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.”
As Warner Bros. has taken steps to move away from theatrical to streaming, in an effort to boost HBO Max, Snyder is boldly hoping for his cut of Justice League to get a traditional release in theaters. It’s unclear if there would be any differences between his R-rated cut for HBO Max and this version he wants in cinemas…
“I’m a huge fan and a big supporter of the cinematic experience, and we’re already talking about Justice League playing theatrically at the same time it’s coming to HBO Max,” Snyder says. “So weirdly, it’s the reverse [of the trend].”
We’ll see if Warner Bros. decides this is a good idea. With all of their films opening in theaters and HBO Max next year, there is some symmetry to what Snyder is asking for.
