After Disney acquired Fox, there was some speculation about the future of the Deadpool franchise, starring Ryan Reynolds as the titular mercenary. While the business move opened the door for the X-Men to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this particular mutant's edgy humour and bad language didn’t seem to gel with Disney’s more family friendly brand.
However, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige has confirmed not only that Deadpool 3 will be rated R, but also that it will be part of the MCU.
Speaking to Collider, Feige said: “It will be rated R and we are working on a script right now, and Ryan’s overseeing a script right now… It will not be [filming] this year. Ryan is a very busy, very successful actor. We’ve got a number of things we’ve already announced that we now have to make, but it’s exciting for it to have begun. Again, a very different type of character in the MCU, and Ryan is a force of nature, which is just awesome to see him bring that character to life.”
While it might be disappointing that we’ll be waiting a while to see Deadpool back on the big screen, the news that he’ll be joining the MCU is very exciting. Considering how meta his sense of humour is, it would probably be easy to slot Deadpool into the wider Marvel universe without requiring any major changes – a quick one-liner and a wink at the camera would do the trick.
Disney also clearly aren't shying away from more adult-oriented content, with Star arriving to Disney Plus in February, which includes content like Family Guy and Die Hard.
Although Deadpool won’t be back on our screens this year, there’s still a whole lot of superhero movies headed our way – from Marvel’s currently undated Fantastic Four reboot to Black Widow, which should finally see a theatrical release this May. Check out the rest with our guide to upcoming superhero movies.
