Ever since Marvel landed the rights to the X-Men, there’s been both joy and fear from Deadpool fans. On the one hand, it’s exciting to think of him rubbing shoulders with the Avengers or Spider-Man. On the other, there’s the risk that the Merc with a Mouth will have to be sanitized to make him fit into the family-friendly MCU. There’s been various comments on this from those involved with the character, but the hope is obviously that Marvel will stick with the R-rating that Fox established with earlier DP films for Deadpool 3 and onward.
Insider Grace Randolph has shared some new intel today, however, which says that an R-rating is far from set in stone. The Beyond the Trailer host’s latest video details where Marvel is at right now in bringing Deadpool into their franchise. She argues that things are not going smoothly behind the scenes, using DP creator Rob Liefeld’s criticism of Marvel’s handling of the anti-hero on social media as evidence. Not to mention Ryan Reynolds’ apparent lack of knowledge about what the studio is doing, as per his last few comments on the topic.
According to Randolph, then, the earliest Deadpool 3 could get here is in 2023, given how packed Marvel’s Phase 4 lineup already is. However, based on her information, the insider believes that Wade Wilson may show up before then in other MCU projects. Here’s the thing, though: these appearances could apparently rework him into a PG-13 character. And when it gets here, DP3 would then also sport that rating.
There’s a lot of ifs here, then, and everything seems up in the air. Kevin Feige has said in the past that he wouldn’t want to change anything about Deadpool when bringing him into the MCU, but the decision could go even above his head and rest with Disney, who may’ve changed their minds. For now, we’ll just have to see how it all plays out, but it’s not hard to guess which way the vast majority of fans hope it’ll go.