The latest Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie has been banned in Saudi Arabia over the trans flag that briefly appears in the movie.
The Saudi Cinema Authority said that the highly-anticipated movie will not hit screens in the Kingdom until “parts of the movie were amended”.
“Out of our keenness on the safety of the content shown in cinemas, and our responsibility towards the viewers, we would like to point out that we will not permit or license any film that contradicts the content controls in force in the media system… and it’s implementing regulations unless the production companies commit to implementing the required amendments,” the social media statement said.
So far the animated movie has dominated at the box office and is widely considered to be among the franchise’s finest cinematic outing.
Many Reddit and Twitter users in the Gulf country speculated that the movie might not be released locally. Meanwhile, tickets for the screening are no longer available to pre-book at local cinemas.
On Empire’s website, the show is still marked under ‘Coming Soon’ with a June 22 release date.