Looks like you don’t have to worry about DC turning Batman: The Killing Joke into a story about how The Joker once took Barbara Gordon out for ice cream and they had a fine time and shook hands after he walked her home. Entertainment Weekly reports the latest entry in the DC Universe Original Movie franchise is receiving an R rating, the first film in that series to do so. (Though technically the second Batman film to receive the rating, if you count the upcoming home-video release of Batman V. Superman: We Swear This Version Sucks Less.)
This might’ve been mildly surprising last year, when we first reported the news, but now that we live in a post-Deadpool universe where everything is going to be rated R (really looking forward to the inevitable hard-R version of Wall-E 2), it doesn’t even qualify for an eyebrow raise. But really, there’s no sane way they could’ve made The Killing Joke—even in animated form—without such a rating, as anyone who’s read Alan Moore’s brutally dark and compelling graphic novel can attest. (Meanwhile, the film version of The Dark Knight Returns fumes in the corner, pounding shots and muttering about how “thass so toy, man.”) Plus, Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy are returning to voice the iconic villain and hero, respectively, meaning you’ll finally get to hear Luke Skywalker swear up a fucking storm.