The fanboy world exploded this past week when the long-anticipated Deadpool movie finally got a release date. However, if this latest rumor is true, some of those fans may not be quite as excited as they initially were.
Schmoes Know are reporting that Deadpool won’t be the hard-R film that many were hoping for, but rather, it will carry a PG-13 rating. It’s important to note that this report isn’t coming from an official source. From what we’re hearing, Tim Miller reportedly told one of the hosts of the Schmoes Know podcast that they found a way to make the script PG-13 without losing the soul of the character. Again though, this hasn’t been confirmed by the studio.
Now, some fans are likely going to freak out about this, but I’m not too concerned. It’s not like Deadpool has to drop a bunch of F-bombs to have a cool movie. And plenty of violence has been shown in PG-13 stories. Breaking the fourth wall and being a smartass isn’t going to get you an R-rating.
A few years ago I named Deadpool one of the Marvel characters I thought deserved a feature the most, and my opinion on that matter hasn’t changed in the slightest bit. As long as they keep him knowing he’s a comic book character, cracking jokes, and shooting the shit out of things, there’s no reason why this can’t be a badass movie, regardless of what it’s rated.
The thing is, this film isn’t going to get made unless Fox thinks it can make money, and it’s going to better at the box office if it’s rated PG-13 instead of R. I do understand the concern with watering down the character a bit, but I don’t think they’re going to make this a children’s film by any means. So, I say if it gets us a Deadpool movie, then bring on the PG-13.
If everything goes according to plan, Deadpool will hit theaters February 12th, 2016.