"Batman v Superman's" R-Rating is Due to "Little Bit of Violence," Snyder Says

CBR

By Stephen Gerding

Published Mar 17, 2016

Zack and Deborah Snyder explain the home video rating for "Dawn of Justice," and address rumors about last minute edits to the film.

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" director Zack Snyder wants to be clear that the success of "Deadpool" in no way informed or influenced the announcement of an R-rated home video cut of his own film.

"[The DVD release] 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. There was nothing by design," Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter. "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."

As for rumors that the film was re-edited in response to early audience reactions, Deborah Snyder, the film's producer and Zack's wife, is quick to shoot them down.

"No. When we had a locked picture, we didn't change anything," Deborah told Forbes. "We've been working on the 3D. We did the 3D conversion after the movie was done."

Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams and others, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" hits screens on March 25.