Zack Snyder Says Extended 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' Won't Be Hard R, Plus New Clips And Featurette

When it was announced last month that an R-rated cut of "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" was on the way, there was a kneejerk reaction that Warner Bros. was simply responding to the R-rated smash success of "Deadpool." But Zack Snyder‘s wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, dismisses those notions.

"Online, everyone’s like, ‘Oh, they’re doing an R-rated in reaction to Deadpool,’ and you’re like (laughing), ‘We didn’t just shoot it last week, and we also didn’t edit it last week,’ " she told THR.

As for what will be in the extended cut, we already know that Jena Malone — cut from the theatrical version — will appear, and there will be "one giant" Easter egg for "Justice League." But don’t expect anything completely bonkers or truly adult to be unveiled.

"…[the DVD version] is a half-hour longer, and some of that additional material is some of the stuff we took out for the rating," Zack Snyder said. "I was like, ‘Cool, I can put it back in for the director’s cut.’ There was nothing by design. This was the material I just put back in, and then when [the MPAA] looked at it again, they were like, ‘Oh, now the movie’s rated R.’ And, by the way, it’s not a hard R. There’s no nudity. There’s a little bit of violence. It just tips the scale."

That sounds about right. The filmmaker almost certainly went into production knowing he would have to shoot for PG-13, so it wouldn’t have made sense for him to lens anything well beyond that ballpark. When it comes to the action scenes, he likely shot for maximum impact, and did a dance with the MPAA to see what he could get into the PG-13 theatrical version.

Meanwhile, as for those rumors that Zack Snyder re-edited his movie following reaction from the second trailer, Deborah brushes that off. "No. When we had a locked picture, we didn’t change anything. We’ve been working on the 3D. We did the 3D conversion after the movie was done," she explained.

Zack also isn’t concerned about criticism that the picture is too serious. "I would go back to ‘The Dark Knight‘ argument and say, ‘Is that a bad thing? What does that mean?’ By the way, the most serious movies I’ve made in the past always have irony in them," he said. "I just gave it the weight that it deserves as far as the mythological conformation. But it’s still a guy in a red and blue suit fighting a guy in a black suit. I mean, they’re in costumes. The movie is fun, and Batman fights Superman. If you can’t have fun there, then something’s kind of wrong with you."

"Batman v Superman" opens on March 25th. Check out new clips and a featurette below.