Black Adam was originally set for an R rating before extensive edits

Black Adam, DC's upcoming superhero movie, was almost rated R due to extreme violence, producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia have revealed. In a new interview with Collider, the twosome said the comic book flick had to be extensively edited four times before MPAA granted it its current PG-13 rating, widening its potential audience.

"We really wanted to make sure that we honored 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," Garcia told the publication, noting that it was "really important" for them to showcase the titular character's ferocity without excluding younger fans. "So we always went into this knowing that we were going to push it as far as we did."

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Black Adam follows Dwayne Johnson's Teth-Adam, an ancient Egyptian slave who turned against his oppressors when he was bestowed powers by the wizard Shazam. Now, 5000 years after he was imprisoned, he has been freed from his earthly tomb – and he's hellbent on vengeance. Will the JSA be able to stop him before he does too much damage in the name of justice?

Quintessa Swindell, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Aldis Hodge, and Pierce Brosnan round out the supporting cast. Viola Davis also appears briefly as her Suicide Squad character Amanda Waller.

"We did have to make a lot of edits, actually. There are some personal moments that we really love, but we had to let them go. But we never compromised, we never had to cut a scene," Flynn chimed in. "We had some really cool moments, and if you notice, there are some great moments when Black Adam is in the fly bike chase sequence and drops one of the intergang soldiers. 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. 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 MPAA on that."

Black Adam is released on Friday, October 21 in both the UK and US. To prepare, check out our handy guide on how to watch the DC movies in order.