Last March, Disney purchased 20th Century Fox for a cool $71.3 billion. A hefty price tag, sure, but the Mouse House knew they were getting a number of well known IP that they could reshape and repackage under the Disney umbrella. Chief among them are the “other” Marvel characters not previously in the MCU.
From the X-Men to the Fantastic Four, Disney and Marvel Studios now have a brand new set of beloved superheroes to add to their already stacked lineup. But the outlier is Deadpool. He’s the wildcard here, the creepy uncle who makes inappropriate jokes during Thanksgiving dinner. But unlike that uncle, we love Deadpool and never want him to change. What happens now that he’s entering a PG-13 world, though? Will he stay the same?
Well, according to writer Rhett Reese, the Merc with the Mouth can absolutely maintain his R-rating, with the scribe saying the following in a recent interview:
“Absolutely, because I don’t think it’ll be under the Disney banner,” Reese told Screen Rant when promoting the home release of Zombieland: Double Tap with co-writer Paul Wernick. “Like, I don’t think when you go to Deadpool 3, there’s going to be a Magic Castle that appears. I think it’s going to be under the Fox banner, so yes.”
I guess that’s true at least for Deadpool 3. Two movies and $1.6 billion or so later, there’s no way a character as popular as this will be sanitized just because he’s under the same roof as Pixar. Although, based on recent reports, star Ryan Reynolds seems to be fighting to keep the R-rating, with Marvel Studios apparently considering going in the other direction.
Of course, the real tricky thing about having the Merc in the MCU is the team-up movies. Forget the R-rating for a second, which would also be tough to pull off. While the existing properties certainly have a level of humor to them, they never go so far as to acknowledge the audience and make quips about the actors portraying the characters. It might actually bring an Avengers movie to a halt if it happened. But the character is definitely appearing in future MCU films alongside other heroes and it’ll be fascinating to see how that works out.
In any case, at the end of the day, this is still Marvel and Kevin Feige we’re talking about. Whether it’s hiring Taika Waititi to direct Thor: Ragnarok, or giving us a smart Hulk or fat Thor, they’re not afraid to take some risks while still maintaining a cohesive overall vision for the MCU.
“When we [Marvel Studios] were purchased [by Disney], Bob said to us, ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,'” Feige previously told Variety. “There’s no question that Deadpool is working, so why would we change it?”
And honestly, it might actually be kind of fun and hilarious to see Deadpool enter an Avengers movie, start cursing and have it bleeped or dubbed with replacement words a la The Good Place. But however the studio chooses to handle Wade Wilson, let’s just hope we see him again sooner rather than later.