Suicide Squad 2 Is Officially Rated R

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is officially rated R. When Disney temporarily fired Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it didn’t take long for him to land at Warner Bros. and DC Films. He selected the next installment of the Suicide Squad franchise as the project he wanted to make the most. The Suicide Squad is neither a sequel to or reboot of David Ayer’s 2016 movie, although it does feature some of the same characters mixed in with a new collection of obscure DC villains.

From very early on in The Suicide Squad‘s development, it was reported that Gunn intended to make the DC movie an R-rated superhero blockbuster. Gunn repeatedly teased that this was his plan, and even those involved with the movie said that it is heavily R-rated due to its content. Throughout the marketing of The Suicide Squad, which included the release of a red-band trailer, it has been made clear that it was made for more mature audiences thanks to its use of blood, violence, and profanity.

Now, The Suicide Squad‘s R-rating is officially confirmed. The official CARA/MPA rating website, FilmRatings.com, shared another batch of film ratings recently and it included Gunn’s twisted DC villain team-up movie. According to the listing, The Suicide Squad is rated R due to “strong violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual references, drug use and brief graphic nudity.”

The original Suicide Squad was always intended to be PG-13, but DC and Gunn now know with absolute certainty that the R-rating will be another way that The Suicide Squad is different from its predecessor. Gunn hasn’t directed an R-rated movie in years, since the Guardians of the Galaxy films are PG-13, but his prior movies, Super and Slither, were made for more mature audiences. Meanwhile, this marks the third R-rated DC movie to be released since 2019. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was last seen in an R-rated movie, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), so this guarantees she won’t be “toned down” for her next appearance.

The Suicide Squad‘s R-rating also continues a growing trend to make major comic book movies with a more adult rating. Even though there were other R-rated comic book movies before Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds’ superhero comedy showed how lucrative it could be. DC has already experienced some of this success with 2019’s Joker earning more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. In a pre-COVID-19 world, The Suicide Squad would’ve been viewed as a near-lock to make more than $1 billion due to Gunn’s involvement, the large cast, and the first film making over $825M. Now we’ll have to wait and see if The Suicide Squad becomes the latest R-rated superhero movie success story.

Source: FilmRatings

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Cooper Hood
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Cooper Hood is a news and feature writer for Screen Rant. He joined Screen Rant in late 2016 following a year-long stint with MCU Exchange, which came after first developing an MCU blog of his own. He graduated college in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Public Communication, with a minor in Media Production. Cooper’s love for movies began by watching Toy Story and Lion King on repeat as a child, but it wasn’t until The Avengers that he took an invested interest in movies and the filmmaking process, leading him to discover the world of film journalism. Every year Cooper looks forward to seeing the latest blockbusters from the likes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, but also loves the rush to catch up on Oscar films near the end of the year. When he isn’t writing about or watching new releases, Cooper is a fantasy football obsessive and looking to expand his Blu-Ray collection – because physical media is still king! Follow Cooper on Twitter @MovieCooper.

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