Black Adam to Test Its PG-13 Limits Just Like The Dark Knight Did

What do you get when you mix The Rock with a dark, powerful anti-hero? The best DC supervillain movie, of course!

After almost a decade in the making, Black Adam finally got its first teaser at this year’s DC FanDome and is currently in the editor’s room, getting polished to perfection.

The film’s producer has decided to build up the hype even further by comparing it to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. If one has the guts to compare their film to one of the best superhero movies ever made, you best believe it is going to be one hell of a treat.

Speaking to CBR, producer Hiram Garcia said the film will tread the thin line between an R rating and PG-13,

Black Adam is edgy, right? That’s gonna be a PG-13 movie where it was very much like, say, The Dark Knight, where that pushed the edges of PG-13. I think we do that very much with Black Adam. We have a very high kill count in our movie.

Hiram Garcia

The Dark Knight cinematographer Wally Pfister had previously told Vulture that he was shocked Nolan’s movie didn’t get an R-rating, especially considering the pencil scene.

If Black Adam is anywhere near that level, it will be interesting to see how they manage to keep it PG-13 while still maintaining the anti-hero’s brutal nature.

PG-13 or not, DC films always have a tendency to be a bit darker and create the perfect end-of-the-world, gloomy atmosphere.

In another interview with Collider, Garcia said the film’s first cut is quite impressive

A lot of times when you see that early cut, it sets a table where you realize, ‘Okay, now we understand how much work [we’ve] got to do. We just saw the director’s cut recently, and we were really excited. Granted, the movie’s in a stage where there are no effects done. It’s so fresh after filming. But any time the movie is that entertaining and good in that raw of a form, it makes us very confident.

Hiram Garcia

Garcia praised Dwayne Johnson saying, “DJ was born to play Black Adam,” and also mentioned the rest of the cast, promising a “very heavy visual effects movie.”

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, besides Dwayne Johnson in the titular role, the film stars Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan Kenzari, and Sarah Shahi.

Black Adam is set to arrive in theaters on July 29, 2022.

About Black Adam

Black Adam is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics fictional supervillain, directed by Jaume Collett-Serra. It is a spinoff of the 2019 movie Shazam!, and the 11th film in the DCEU franchise.

Black Adam is the antihero to Shazam and possesses the same powers as the white-caped superhero. But after being imprisoned for 5000 years, he is finally free, and now, the Justice Society of America, a team of superheroes, must stop him before he fulfills his mission to wreak havoc on the world that rejected him.

The film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam, and joining him are cast members Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Pierce Brosnan, and Viola Davis.