The latest Justice League movie has been revealed to be R-rated as it prepares for release.
DC animated epic Justice League: Warworld is the latest entry into the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), the long-running and much-loved franchise at Warner Bros.
Warworld marks the tenth film entry into the Tomorrowverse, focusing on a group of iconic DC heroes as - after being transported to a dangerous new realm - are forced to band together to become the Justice League.
Based on the Warworld Saga storyline from DC Comics, the story is known for being brutal, featuring some visceral and intense gladiator-style battles.
An R-Rated Justice League
The latest Justice League film, Justice League: Warworld, has been given an R-rating.
As first reported by Bloody Disgusting, Warworld was listed as R-rated by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), citing "some bloody violence.”
This comes as the sixth R-rated project within the DCAU. It follows the animated films Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Constantine City of Demons: The Movie, Justice League Dark, and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, along with the Constantine: The House of Mystery short.
A number of original DC animated films not set within the connected continuity of the DCAU have received an R-rating as well (i.e. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Batman: The Killing Joke, and Injustice).
Unlike some of its competitors, Warner Bros. has not been averse to giving its comic book films the oft-looked-down-upon R-rating. Three of its live-action DCU films are R-rated including Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad, and Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Warner Bros.' Animated Strategy
For nearly a decade, Warner Bros. has done a fantastic job of exploring the MPA rating scale. After seeing success doing it within its much-celebrated animated universe, it even brought the strategy over to its live-action ventures as well.
The studio seemingly is okay with creatives seeing their vision, even if that may cross the R-rated threshold every once in a while.
What will be interesting to see is if this continues to be the case as co-CEO James Gunn and Peter Safran take the reins of the blue brand. Seeing as Gunn was the filmmaker behind two of the studio's most successful R-rated DC projects to date (The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker), it seems like it might.
Both Gunn and Safran seem open to just about anything with their new vision for DC on-screen, telling each and every story (both in-universe and Elseworlds) in the best way for that particular project, whether that be R-rated, animated, or anything else.
Justice League: Warworld is set for release sometime this summer.
