‘Batman vs. Superman’ R-Rated Cut Will Be Over 3 Hours, Says Zack Snyder
Batman vs. Superman is opening in theaters next week, but an extended, R-rated cut of the film will be included with the DVD and Blu-ray release of the film. While many extended cuts just include a few additional minutes of footage and a couple random edits, Batman vs. Superman director Zack Snyder says his planned R-rated cut will include a whopping 30 minutes of new footage, pushing it past the three hour mark.
As it currently stands, Batman vs. Superman runs two hours and 31 minutes. The R-rated extended edition will run three hours and 1 minute, according to Snyder who talked to The Hollywood Reporter about his plans for the film.
[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. 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.
There’s got to be a more than just a “little bit of violence” to get an R-rating. Movies with a “little bit of violence” get PG or PG-13 ratings. Batman vs. Superman is already rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence,” so if the MPAA came back and said that this new cut was rated R, it probably has upped the intensity of the violence considerably.
Snyder also disputes the news that their R-rated cut of Batman vs. Superman was a reaction to the success of Deadpool, saying they had already finished this new edit before that film hit theaters.
So, what is actually in the R-rated Batman vs. Superman cut?
We do know that Jena Malone’s character, rumored to be Barbara Gordon, will reappear in the extended cut after being edited out of the theatrical version. How much screentime she’ll wind up having and whether it will lead to a larger role in either Justice League or a standalone Batman movie remains to be seen.
Snyder has also said that the extended cut will include “a lot of these easter eggs” for the DC Cinematic Universe adding, “There’s one giant one that I won’t tell you about yet that speaks to what’s gonna go on in the greater Justice League universe.”
As for why this R-rated version of Batman vs. Superman even exists, Ben Affleck explains, “I’m a parent of young kids, and I feel like I wouldn’t want to have a Batman v Superman that I couldn’t show to my younger kids. But on the same token, as an adult, I like to see movies that are R-rated. I think nowadays because we have so many means of distribution and ways that we can do different things, it’s the creative solution to a creative challenge.”
Batman vs. Superman opens in theaters on March 25. The DVD and Blu-ray extended cut does not have an announced release date.