One of the first major questions Marvel Cinematic Universe fans had when Deadpool 3 was confirmed to be retaining the R-rating of its predecessors was whether the same criteria would be applied to the Blade reboot.
After all, a vampire hunter slicing and dicing his way through hordes of the undead is hardly designed with PG audiences in mind, and while it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker by any stretch of the imagination, you’d hope that Mahershala Ali and writer Stacy Ossei-Kuffour would be given the creative freedom to lean into the Daywalker’s darker edges.
The MCU is virtually bulletproof at this point anyway, and an expansion into more adult-orientated territory would likely do nothing to harm the franchise’s continued earning power, although films of that nature might be slapped with slightly different branding in order to make sure that parents don’t accidentally bring the young’uns along unwittingly before being bombarded by blood, gore and profanity.
So far, the superhero series hasn’t even exercised the use of the one F-bomb that a PG-13 allows, but we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Luke Skywalker was returning to Star Wars long before The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale – that Ryan Reynolds is reportedly pushing for an influx of R-rated MCU installments so that Deadpool can be used to his fullest potential outside of just his own solo movies.
Of course, everything MCU-related begins and ends with Kevin Feige, so the decision will ultimately rest with the boss and not one of his actors. Besides, by the time Deadpool 3 arrives, we’ll have waited over fifteen years just to get one R-rated installment, so it’s not like it’ll instantly lead to the floodgates being opened for foul-mouthed Marvel films to become a regular feature of the studio’s output. Still, it’ll certainly pave the way and if it’s a big hit, you can bet that Feige and co. will be venturing into more mature territory with additional projects as well.
