DC gave permission for Killing Joke animated film to be Rated-R

The DC cinematic universe news engine is really firing up ahead of next year's major releases of Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. That said, they’ve been killing it for years in regards to their animated movies and the reveal that we can expect a Killing Joke animated film was something that got a lot of fans interested.

Director James Tucker spoke at the Batman: Bad Blood First Look Panel at NYCC and let it be known that they’d been given clearance to make Killing Joke R-Rated. For fans, this revelation makes sense when the graphic and brutal subjects that get explored in the graphic novel by Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell). “And you know, they said we could make it a R.” Though Tucker was swift to amend, “Not saying that’s what it will be, but we’ll see.”

Killing Joke isn’t for the faint of heart, but knowing that DC is willing to risk a potentially audience isolating R-Rating on a big budget project is a good sign that they’re looking to be faithful to the original material. That right there is a rare event in comic book adaptations.