In the Meg movies, there’s no shortage of violent deaths. Both films feature a number of scenes where people are viciously killed, and the sequel in particular, Meg 2: The Trench, actually ups the ante by throwing more prehistoric monsters into the mix. It turns out, however, that the new blockbuster didn’t actually have to fight hard at all for its PG-13 rating from the MPA, and the content desires of director Ben Wheatley were satisfied in a way that also negated any need for an unrated cut.
The filmmaker spoke about Meg 2’s rating during an interview with CinemaBlend last week prior to the film’s theatrical release. Jon Turteltaub’s The Meg arrived in theaters in 2018 with a PG-13 rating, and I asked Wheatley if there was ever a conversation about making the sequel R-rated – or at the very least making an unrated cut for home video. He explained that the movie was designed to tiptoe on the edge of a more restricted rating when it was in production and the editing room, and ultimately there weren’t any standout issues because of the nature of the violence. Said Wheatley,
No, it was always designed to get to the absolute edge of it. But then we found we didn't need it. You know, the certification stuff only kicks in when it's human on human, really. So as long as you're not beating the tar out of people or squashing them or something, then you can... the actual feeling of action and dynamism is exactly the same between an R and a PG-13.
When a Megalodon kills a person in Meg 2: The Trench, there usually is a splash of blood that accompanies the moment, but there isn’t any gratuitous gore. In a sense, the size of the shark gives the movies an advantage when it comes to shooting for PG-13, as the Meg can just swallow characters whole while smaller sharks have to take chunks out of their prey.
Staying within the boundaries of a PG-13 rating didn’t limit the creative satisfaction that Ben Wheatley got from making the film, and it also had another benefit for him: it gives the movie the capacity to be one of 2023's summer movies for all ages. Having spent most of his career making features that are strictly for adults – like Kill List, High Rise and Free Fire – he said that was something that he was happy to change up with the making of Meg 2. Wheatley continued,
And I think we wanted that big audience. It's out to everybody. We want to make sure you can play it to the grandkids and to the grandparents, and I know from having made hard Rs that that does not happen [laughs].
Starring Jason Statham, Jing Wu, Cliff Curtis, and Sienna Guillory, and sporting a family-friendly rating, Meg 2: The Trench is now playing in theaters everywhere (and it unseated Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer for second place at the box office this past weekend). Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more from my interview with Ben Wheatley, and preview all of the big films set to come out in the remaining months of the year with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
