Initially, the announcement of Venom’s PG-13 rating seemed a cause for concern among fans of the darker, more sinister Marvel character. Citing the recent success of grittier R-rated hero movies like Logan and Deadpool, fans questioned what the lighter rating would mean: Would a PG-13 rating mean a weaker, watered-down version of Eddie Brock/Venom? Was the rating an attempt to entice Disney into letting squeaky clean Marvel teen Peter Parker play in Venom’s sandbox? FANDOM spoke with Venom director Ruben Fleischer ahead of the movie’s October 5 release date, and here’s what he had to say.
No, the PG-13 Rating Is Not About Spider-Man
Fleischer confirmed that Venom was “always designed as a PG-13 movie.” But that doesn’t mean Spider-Man is totally out of the picture — and fans aren’t the only ones psyched for the possibility of a superhero crossover. When asked specifically about a possible future appearance by the wall-crawler, Fleischer replied, “Keeping it PG-13 does allow for the possibility of intersecting with other worlds, which is exciting.” Additionally, Fleischer doesn’t see forgoing an R-rating as sacrificing action or tone. “We wanted to push it to the hilt,” he said, “which I feel like we did.”
The Dark Knight Was a Big Inspiration Behind Venom‘s Rating
While the Spider-Man franchise wasn’t a factor in Venom‘s PG-13 rating, another superhero juggernaut was: The Dark Knight. “Our reference point was always The Dark Knight,” Fleischer explained. “If you can put a pen through a guy’s forehead, then you can certainly bite some peoples’ heads off. I don’t feel like Dark Knight made any compromises, and I don’t believe that with our film we made any compromises.”
The director is very confident that the brutal action in Venom will be more than enough to fulfill audience expectations for new and old fans alike. It sounds like there will be plenty of skull-snacking, cranium-crunching, and face-feasting to go around.
