Posted on by Dunc

Today in The Force Awakens: It’s officially PG-13

A new Poe Dameron image from Empire. This looks to be part of the scene we saw filmed in SDCC's behind-the-scenes reel.
A new Poe Dameron image from Empire. This looks to be part of the scene we saw being filmed in the behind-the-scenes reel from SDCC.
The Force Awakens is rated PG-13 for “sci-fi action violence,” per filmratings.com. It’s only the second Star Wars to be rated above a PG, after Revenge of the Sith – although to be fair, the PG-13 rating didn’t even exist until 1984. (And I personally doubt this one will have anything to match extra crispy Anakin.)

→ Box office tracking estimates for the film came out today, and they are, as you might expect, pretty nuts. Oh, and it’s selling a lot of stuff.

→ If you really love hyperbole, Entertainment Weekly wants you to start thinking about The Force Awakens’ Oscar chances. Uhh, okay guys.

→ Yet another featurette, this time on BB-8, is coming to the Disney Channel on Sunday. Looking a bit further ahead, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill will be among the guests on Graham Norton’s Christmas show.

5 Replies to “Today in The Force Awakens: It’s officially PG-13”

  1. I will point out that while TFA is PG-13 for “scifi action violence”, Revenge of the Sith was rated PG-13 for “Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images.” So, this pretty much rules out crispy fried Anakin type scenes, or maybe also Order 66 type scenes.

  2. Also, the original trilogy movies were re-rated for the Special Editions and then again for the DVD release. As per Manabyte, for the special editions, they changed the blaster impacts to remove the bigger flames, in order to keep the PG ratings. The DVD releases were also rated PG.

  3. Still, it’s disappointing. I thought if anyone could make a super cool sic-fi adventure the whole family could go to, it would be Disney… I saw Star Wars in ’77 when I was 6 years old and have been loving it ever since. Had hoped the same experience for my son (who’s 8 yrs old)… Episodes 1 and 2 were PG, so obviously it could have been done… Why alienate the 8-11 yr-old fanbase/market?

    1. Or one could just see it first and decide if it’s appropriate for your children on your own… Every kid is different, and will have different things they can handle, but it is still Star Wars so I doubt anything is going to be too over the top. (And there’s no way they, say, drop a f-bomb.)

      The fuss over this seems way overblown: People are acting like they rated it R. Almost if not all the Marvel movies are PG-13, and I don’t see people acting like this.

      1. No kidding. It’s “action violence.” People are going to get blown up. Frankly, I’m surprised that modern raters let “Vader chokes a bitch” and “people getting hands cut off” slide as PG. Heck, “Luke gets violently electrocuted and screams and thrashes” was pretty intense. Plus the “Carrie Fisher has to wear a bikini where apparently they were one wind gust away from a wardrobe malfunction.” Not to mention “tauntaun guts” or “entire planet incinerated.” It’s not NC-17, no one is going bar an eight-year-old from entering the theater.

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