Here’s a tasty chimichanga for us all to enjoy. Kevin Feige says that the upcoming Deadpool 3, which was moved over to Disney after the Fox merger, will indeed be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) while still being R-rated. The Merc with a Mouth’s future was up in the air thanks to the fact that his violent, foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking films don’t especially fit into the MCU’s PG-13 superhero world. However, in speaking with Collider, Feige revealed that Disney isn’t going to be messing with a successful formula no matter what Rob Liefield says:
It will be rated R and we are working on a script right now, and (Ryan Reynolds is) 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 Deadpool 3 had been pretty much confirmed, the fact that it won’t be filming this year is some news. Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux are working on the screenplay under the watchful eye of Reynolds, who spearheaded the movement to get the character to the big screen and has overseen him ever since while playing the character. Just how they’ll shoehorn the character into the MCU is hard to predict since, as Feige notes, he’s so drastically different from the rest of the universe. However, having him pop up in cameos in other films might be a good way do that. For instance, the weirdness that is sure to be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would be a great opportunity to introduce a guy who breaks the fourth wall, though we may not see him at all until the next round of Marvel films starts production given Reynolds’ busy schedule.
What phase of the MCU Deadpool will find himself in isn’t clear, but the fact that Disney is committed to keeping the character R-rated and still be part of the MCU gives hints at a promising future for not just Deadpool but the MCU itself. If Disney is willing to play around with more adult characters, it could signal an expansion of the type of films we see from the studio.
