Black Adam was originally much more violent, it has emerged.
The DC Comics superhero film stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular character, acting opposite Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, and Quintessa Swindell.
Black Adam is rated PG-13 for “sequences of strong violence, intense action, and some language”.
The first several cuts of the film, however, originally earned an R rating, meaning unsuitable for children below the age of 17.
Producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia confirmed to Collider that it took “four rounds” of cuts for the Motion Pictures Association to grant Black Adam the PG-13 rating.
According to Flynn, the original cut of the film featured 10 violent kills carried out by Jonhson’s character. The production team removed around five of those kills in order to secure the PG-13 rating.
Garcia told the publication: “We really wanted to make sure that we honoured the character of Black Adam.
“One of the things he’s known for is his aggression and violence, and to do a Black Adam movie that didn’t have that just wouldn’t have been authentic. So we always went into this knowing that we were going to push it as far as we did.”
“There are some great moments when Black Adam is in the fly bike chase sequence and drops one of the gang soldiers,” Flynn said.
“Then there’s this great moment where the truck bounces over the body. But those are moments that you need and remember in these movies, you know what I mean?
“You can’t play it safe, and you have to go for it. And I think we have four or five of those. At one point we had about ten, and we were able to find some compromise with the MPA on that.”
Black Adam follows the story of Johnson’s character after he is freed from his earthly tomb nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the powers of Egyptian gods.
The film will premiere in theatres on 21 October.
