Disney
Prior to the insanity surrounding Joker, it was Deadpool that was breaking ground as a different type of film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe-saturated space of comic book movies.
While there have been R-rated superhero movies in the past (Blade and Watchmen, to name a couple), Deadpool showed studios that you could make an adult comic book film about a wildly popular character that’s successful with both critics and at the box office. Simply put, without Deadpool, we may not have gotten films such as Logan and Joker, which are already considered two of the greatest comic book movies ever made.
However, since Disney’s acquisition of Fox, fans of the Merc with a Mouth have had legitimate concerns that because Deadpool is now owned by Disney, he will, therefore, reshaped to fit the more family-friendly nature of the MCU.
Luckily for everyone involved — the fans, the actors and writers, the movie studio — it appears that Disney will not be trying squeeze Deadpool’s square peg into their round hole (pretend this is a Deadpool movie and that’s a sex joke) as one of the franchise’s screenwriters claims Disney has allowed the Deadpool franchise to remain R-rated.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly while promoting Zombieland: Doubletap, Paul Wernick — who co-wrote both Deadpool and its sequel — revealed that Marvel Studios, and therefore Disney, will be allowing the franchise to continue producing R-rated films.
“We’re always in touch with Ryan… I think the party line and truth is we’re all still figuring it out. Marvel has promised to continue to let us play in the R-rated Deadpool universe, and the hope is that they will also let us veer into the MCU a little bit as well and play in that sandbox. Our feeling and Ryan’s feeling is that it’s got to be the right idea, it’s got to be great… I think once we collectively agree what idea that great idea is we’ll be off to the races. Ryan’s super-busy, we’ve got a lot of projects lined up, but we wake up thinking about Deadpool, and we go to sleep thinking about Deadpool.”
Wernick’s comments just days after Reynolds himself teased a meeting with the House of Mouse, presumably about Deadpool’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Given that the people behind Deadpool and Marvel Studios are already having discussions about the future of the franchise, it’s on a matter of time until he pops up in a self-aware post-credit scene.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Contact him on Twitter @eric_ital or via email eric@brobible.com