While many are excited to finally watch Zack Snyder‘s original vision for “Justice League” with his version heading to HBO Max next year, younger viewers might be restricted from seeing his more mature edition. Or, at least restricted from seeing what seeing a big-screen version.
During a chat with Entertainment Weekly, the director revealed that he is also hoping to release a theatrical movie version of the 4-hour series currently-titled “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.” The filmmaker said that version is likely going to earn an R-rating. It remains unclear from his comments if he also means the HBO Max project will also be TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.
“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,” Snyder said. “We haven’t heard from the MPAA, but that’s my gut.”
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Zack continues to explain the reasoning behind that rating, “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.”
Some of the things expected to be seen in the unseen version will be the return of Ray Fisher‘s cut Cyborg scenes, among others, along with new scenes with Joe Manganiello‘s Deathstroke and Jared Leto‘s Joker.
The Snyder Cut was revealed at DC FanDome over the summer as four installments, each coming in around an hour a pop as a limited series for HBO Max. What the differences will be between the HBO Max version and the not-yet-confirmed theatrical version, if any, are unclear at the moment. While Warner Bros. — who have moved in the opposite direction and decided to release their entire 2021 theatrical slate on a concurrent HBO Max/theatrical schedule— has not made a “Justice League” theatrical version official, EW says Snyder believes steps are being taken in that direction.
“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 said. “So weirdly, it’s the reverse [of the trend].”
It’s certainly going to be a draw for older DC Comics fans, who have been campaigning more R-rated projects like “Joker” and “Birds of Prey.” I’m curious if this means that WarnerMedia will attempt to get more mature projects on HBO Max as there is talk the DC Comics shows for the streaming service will skew in the mature realm, not unlike HBO’s successful “Watchmen” series.
