Batman v Superman R-rated director's cut is a butt-numbing three hours

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A few weeks back, Zack Snyder confirmed the existence of an R-rated version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice due to arrive only on home video. At the time he said that this Ultimate Edition came about because he didn't want "to make a three-hour movie." After some serious hacking away in the edit suite, the blockbuster was trimmed down to a more manageable two-and-half-hours.

'But what about that extra half an hour!' cried the interwebs. 'Will all of it be in the R-rated edition?' As luck would have it, yes. "[The DVD version] is a half-hour longer," Snyder tells THR, "and some of that additional material is some of the stuff we took out for the rating. I was like, 'Cool, I can put it back in for the director’s cut.' There was nothing by design. This was the material I just put back in, and then when [the MPAA] looked at it again, they were like, 'Oh, now the movie’s rated R.' And, by the way, it’s not a hard R. There’s no nudity. There’s a little bit of violence. It just tips the scale.

No nudity, no point is what someone (not me) might say to that, but we mustn't forget all the cool stuff that is included. Jena Malone's mystery-but-it's-not-really-a-mystery-anymore character will appear alongside a handful of other supporting turns that were snipped from the theatrical cut.

Oh, and Snyder's teased numerous easter eggs setting up the future of the DC Cinematic Universe. So, we might not be getting any super-gory fight scenes or the chance to see Superman's birthday suit, but there's plenty to be excited about...You're picturing that suit, aren't you?

Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, and Amy Adams, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will arrive in UK and US cinemas on March 25, 2016.

Images: Warner Bros.

Gem Seddon
Gem Seddon
Freelance Writer

Gem Seddon is a freelance writer working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.