In Justice League: Warworld, the DC Universe's greatest heroes are swept away to Warworld, a place of unending brutal gladiatorial combat. From there, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the others must somehow unite to form an unbeatable resistance able to lead an entire planet to freedom.
For the most part, the movie is a classic comic book team-up. However, its R-Rating came as a surprise, particularly to those who enjoy watching these animated adventures with their kids and anyone who uses these titles to introduce younger viewers to the DC Universe's characters.
Talking to Screen Rant (via Toonado.com), producer Butch Lukic shed some light on why Justice League: Warworld boasts an R-Rating.
"It's mostly rated R because of the violence," he explains. "There's a lot of bloodletting, sword-fighting, and gunfights. The violence, and then the R-rating's coming from that. Originally, honestly, it's a PG-13."
Fellow producer Jim Krieg adds, "If you cut out the blood with swords and guns, there's nothing. There's not a lot left."
"Originally, we were planning PG-13 because DC made a mandate for the last few years of only PG-13," Lukic noted. "We thought we had a PG-13. But once we got into...the aftereffects, we added more blood, assuming we'd get a milder rated MP, [but] he turned out to be a nutcase and put it as an R."
Reading between the lines, it appears the team isn't overly happy with the R-Rating but the decision was ultimately out of their hands. It does seem a little ridiculous for cartoon violence like this to be labelled with the same rating as a brutal horror movie, for example, and this may well have a negative impact on sales.
That comes at a bad time when DC Studios is looking to create a single shared world franchise, though Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen remain in the works for a 2024 release from Warner Bros. Discovery Animation.
Batman: The Long Halloween star Jensen Ackles leads the cast as Batman/Officer Wayne, with Darren Criss as Superman/Agent Kent and Stana Katic as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince.
Justice League: Warworld is now available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and Digital platforms.