After months of rumor and speculation, we recently got official word that Marvel Studios was moving forward on a third Deadpool movie, with Ryan Reynolds set to return as the Merc With a Mouth and Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin on board to pen the script.
It was later confirmed that the movie would indeed be rated-R, but it doesn't sound like this will mark the beginning of a new, more adult-focused chapter in the MCU.
During today's TCA, Kevin Feige revealed that there are currently no plans for more R-rated projects beyond Deadpool 3, but didn't rule it out if any specific characters or stories were to necessitate the stronger rating down the line.
“I think we target everything we’re doing for kids and adults, so I think your question is more adult or R-rated," said the Marvel boss. "Other than Deadpool, which has already established itself as a certain genre and a certain rating, that we already said we would not mess with when we started working on Deadpool — which we have – other than that, we haven’t encountered a story or a storyline or a character’s journey that a PG-13, or the tone, or the ratings we’ve been using up to this point has prevented us."
"We haven’t been held back," he continued. "If we ever are, than certainly there can be a discussion that can be had now that there’s other outlets like Star. But that just hasn’t been the case. We’ve told all the stories that we wanted to with the tonality and the rating we have now.”
While this might be disappointing to those hoping that the planned Blade reboot of the rumored Punisher revival would be R-rated, it really shouldn't come as much of a suprise.
It sounds like Marvel is making an exception for Deadpool, but most of the studio's content will need to remain under Disney's family-friendly umbrella.