Among the many pieces of information dropped during James Gunn and Peter Safran's announcement of the properties involved in "Gods and Monsters", the first phase of their DC Cinematic Universe, was news that a reboot of the Superman franchise, Superman: Legacy, would be released in 2025. We know that the plan is for a younger Superman, the film isn't an origin story, and it is inspired in part by the classic DC series All-Star Superman from creators Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. This film will be made targeting a PG-13 rating. While an R-rating isn't in the cards for Superman this time around, is there a case to be made for an R-rated Superman movie?
If we look at James Gunn's DC projects to date, The Suicide Squad earned its R-rating, the Peacemaker TV series had the "Contains Scenes of Violence and Coarse Language - Viewer Discretion is Advised" that all children heed. So however unlikely, there is a remote possibility that another Superman film could earn an R-rating of its own. Which begs the question above. The short answer: NO. A slightly longer answer: no way in hell. But of course the real answer is much deeper and warrants more than a simple yes or no response, so up, up and away we go.
Originally, Superman Was More Aggressive
Yet before we can delve into the reasoning, we have to understand the character at the heart of the question. Superman's story begins in the pages of 1938's Action Comics #1, the creation of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. Born on Krypton as Kal-El, his parents sent him to Earth in a small spaceship before the cataclysmic destruction of the planet. He would land near the small town of Smallville, where he was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark.
Clark would begin developing extraordinary powers, like superhuman strength, bulletproof skin, and the ability to leap great distances (Superman didn't fly until the second episode of the Superman radio serial in 1940). Guided by the Kent's to use his powers for the greater good, he adopted his iconic costume and began his career as a crime-fighter. He also developed an alias as Clark Kent, the bespectacled Daily Planet journalist, which allowed him to interact with the people of Metropolis as a regular person. His friends include Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and perpetual love interest Lois Lane, and his enemies include Brainiac and long-time nemesis Lex Luthor.
Of course, everyone knows Superman's story. What you may not know is that in the original stories from Siegel and Shuster, Superman is aggressive and uses excessive force against criminals, even killing them in some instances. That would change when DC Editor Whitney Ellsworth instituted a code of conduct in 1940 that effectively banned Superman from killing (this would also be where Batman's "no-kill" rule came from). It's from that point that Superman became the humanitarian with an unshakable moralistic fiber and a rigid commitment to work within the law. These are the traits that would not only define the character, but become the template for any and all costumed crime fighters for decades.
Superman's Story Is Fundamentally Not R-Rated
So, why the recap of a mythology that is known the world over, across generations and across all manner of media? Because it speaks to what drives Superman. Because it proves that what he embodied then is what he still embodies now. Justice. Morality. Truth. Superman is the golden example of what a superhero can be. He has a legacy so deeply imbedded in society that his depiction in the early Siegel and Shuster era is almost unbelievable, if not forgotten altogether.
Now park that for a moment, and let's look at what constitutes an R rating for a film. According to the Motion Picture Association's 'Classification and Rating Rules', "an R-rated motion picture may include adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually-oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements." What this means is that in order for a Superman movie to be rated R, everything that the character stands for becomes compromised as a result.
Everything that has gone into his legend for almost a century now would have to be skewed to at least some degree, and people simply won't accept it. Need proof? Look no further than Man of Steel. The outrage of the public over Superman (Henry Cavill) killing General Zod (Michael Shannon), justified or not, was intense and is still a bone of contention among the fan base to this day. Imagine now, if you will, the outrage that a violent, f-bomb dropping, and/or sexually active Superman would stoke. There's reinventing a character, and then there's ripping a character's legacy apart, and for the number of eyes and publicity that an R rating would bring, it hardly warrants the effort to do so.
Where Can Superman Go Instead?
The irony of the argument is that there already is an R-rated Superman film (or more accurately, one where he figures prominently): the 2021 DC Animation feature Injustice. Based on the 2013 video game of the same name, the film sees Superman (Justin Hartley) descend into madness after being tricked by the Joker (Kevin Pollak) into killing his pregnant wife Lois Lane (Laura Bailey).
The reaction to the film was average at best, but it does show that an R-rated Superman feature can work in the context of being outside the proper DC continuity, aka Elseworlds. Yet the real blueprint for moving the character forward rests in 2022's The Batman. That film reinvigorated the character by keeping him grounded and returning him to his roots as the "World's Greatest Detective". And that was done within the parameters of a PG-13 rating.
Superman is practically mythological, so the answer isn't to knock him down by twisting him into an R-rated feature with excessive violence or other shock-value additions. Instead, future Superman projects can return him to his small-town roots, digging deeper into not only who he is but why the world fell in love with the last son of Krypton in the first place, in a feature that can be enjoyed by comic book fans of all ages.
