Black Adam producer says PG-13 rating won’t lower the kill count

Last Updated on August 10, 2021

Black Adam might be rated PG-13, but apparently, that's not going to stop the film from displaying a significant body count. That's right, parents. Before you bring your kids to Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, you might want to exercise a bit of caution. Oh, who am I kidding? Superheros have been offing people on-screen for generations, and who doesn't enjoy seeing Johnson serve up a knuckle sandwich with a bit of mustard?

Speaking recently with Collider, Black Adam producer Hiram Garcia explained that the PG-13 rating would have almost no bearing on how many bodies hit the floor in DC's upcoming film. This should sound like music to the ears of some DC fans who've raised concerns about the film not being rated R.

This will be PG-13, but it’s not because we're being forced to be PG-13. The way we devised the movie, it just wasn't necessary to make it R, and it's something we discussed because we did want to be true to the character. The truth is that we felt we were properly able to represent the edge and power that Black Adam has without needing to go to an R rating. This movie can thrive in a PG-13 space and that’s great for us because we want to introduce Back Adam to as many people as possible.

No one ever felt like The Dark Knight was too soft. That was probably one of the hardest PG-13s you've ever seen. That's the way we’ve approached our PG-13, and by no means has that rating limited our kill count!

Now I don't know about you, but I've seen filmmakers do a lot with films that are rated PG-13. It sounds to me like Black Adam director Jaume Collet-Serra will be pushing the rating to the max to tell a solid story. Fan expectations are always a concern, of course. However, if you think DC is going to build its Black Adam project around visceral violence and cuss-happy dialogue, maybe you've forgotten who pays the bills? One thing is for sure, Black Adam already has the potential to become one of DC's best superhero films to date. Why? Well, not only is Dwayne Johnson star as the eponymous antihero, but Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Marwan Kenzari, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, and Quintessa Swindell also star. That's a recipe for badassery if I ever saw one. I say we turn the PG-13 rating up to eleven and dive right in!