Suicide Squad arrives in theaters this summer, but rather than focus on a do-gooder protagonist like most superhero movies, the bad guys are leading the charge on this adventure. Because of its super-villain focus and darker content, many fans wondered if the movie might make the jump from PG-13 to R, but director David Ayer has made it clear on several occasions that the movie is intended to PG-13. However, he’d be game for making Suicide Squad 2 R-rated under the right circumstances.
Ayer made it clear to MTV News that the decision to make a movie R-rated has to be made "right out the gate," and that was never the plan for Suicide Squad, but he might consider the more intense rating for a sequel. He said:
It would be worth lobbying for.
Producer Charles Roven said five months back that Suicide Squad is meant to feel "tonally consistent" with the rest of the DC Extended Universe, and he later mentioned that the movie has enough "edge" for the audience. This is definitely the safest route when it comes to drawing as wide an audience as possible, especially when your movie has well known characters like Batman and The Joker. It also doesn’t sound like Suicide Squad will be going the same route as its predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, by releasing an R-rated cut on home media. However, since Warner Bros appears to be keen on making Suicide Squad 2, now would be the time for them to start mulling over making the jump to R.
Despite Suicide Squad staying in medium rating territory, Suicide Squad 2 would allow the DCEU to take their villain exploration to even seedier levels, and it wouldn’t be unprecedented. There have been various rated-R comic book movies that have come out over the last 20 years, but as a recent example, Deadpool earned critical acclaim and cleaned up at the box office this year despite its R-rating. Wolverine 3 is also said to be aiming for an R rating to spice up Hugh Jackman’s last foray as the metal-clawed mutant. Suicide Squad 2 could enjoy the same kind of success with being rated R as long as it had the right creative vision and still kept the same humor and spirit.
Besides the obvious allowance of more cursing, Suicide Squad 2 being rated R it would certainly open the door for the main villains to get more graphic with their criminal acts. This would range from seeing Killer Croc chew on someone to The Joker…actually, we don’t want to think about what the Clown Prince of Crime would be doing in an R-rated feature. All this being said, if David Ayer believes he can make the sequel he wants while remaining in the PG-13 area, all power to him.
Suicide Squad will be released on August 5.
