Kevin Feige Nails Why Deadpool Works And Says MCU Won’t Strive For Rated-R Films

During a lengthy Q&A session with Deadline, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige dropped a whole lot of information, on everything from Doctor Strange (and its casting controversies) to its drive to include female filmmakers going forward (“We are meeting with many, many immensely talented directors, the majority of whom are female,” he said), but some of his most excitingly on-the-money comments came while discussing Deadpool. 

First things first – audiences probably won’t get an R-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, at least not any time in the near future. That’s relieving to hear, especially in the wake of Warner Bros. proclaiming it was recutting Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice for an R-rated home media release, and Feige follows it by explaining what that rival studio’s move entirely missed – Deadpool‘s success has very little to do with its rating.

Said Feige:

“No, we’ve not had any specific conversations about that. And that is only part of the takeaway from Deadpool. The thing that Deadpool shows is, when you present something unique to an audience, they will respond to it. When you present something as popular as a superhero character, in a different and unique and crazy way as they did in Deadpool, it demands attention and audiences went to it. They pulled it off. Tim Miller did a tremendous job. The other secret, and why it’s still a secret, I don’t know, but they just took what Deadpool is in the comics. He breaks the fourth wall. He talks into the camera. He doesn’t give a sh*t about any of the other heroes. He doesn’t take anything seriously. All of that is what made Deadpool so popular in the comics. Tim and his writers and Ryan Reynolds were able to get that and even magnify that up on the big screen. We’ve always said if there’s any “secret” it’s respect the source material, understand the source material and then, any adaptation you make from the source material should be done only to enhance whatever the original pure spirit of the source material was. Deadpool hit on all cylinders with that.”

Feige’s got it. Deadpool is reverent by being irreverent, and it’s great because it preserves the essence of the comic it’s based upon while functioning as its own piece of blockbuster entertainment. And given that the Marvel comics don’t require R-ratings to be done right, there’s no reason for the studio to contort itself into some sort of box it doesn’t need to fit within. After all, Deadpool already has a sequel on the way – and with Captain America: Civil War earning some of the MCU’s best reviews, the formula Feige has in place seems strong enough already.