Kevin Feige confirms Deadpool 3 will be first R-rated MCU film

There is a lot you can accuse Disney of, but ignoring surefire ways to make more money is not one of them. So there was no way the Disney-owned Marvel Studios was not going to make a third Deadpool movie after the character rights were transferred back to Marvel following the Fox takeover. Deadpool earned its fame though due to star/producer Ryan Reynolds’ violent and profane R-rated antics as the Merc With the Mouth, all of which didn’t align with Disney’s family-friendly image, leading some fans to fear that either Deadpool was getting nerfed or he would be kept separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well, fear no more as we now have confirmation that Deadpool will indeed be in the MCU and R-rated!

This comes via Marvel boss Kevin Feige himself as the fan-favourite studio exec spoke to Collider recently. While chatting about this coming Friday’s debut of WandaVision (the first MCU release in 18 months), Feige was asked about what is happening with Deadpool 3 and gave an update, including a hint of when Deadpool 3 will start shooting.

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.

Up until now, every MCU release has been PG-13 at worst, just sprinkling in a “shit” every now and again, much to the chagrin of Captain America (“Language!”). Even the violence has been pretty subdued even though some rather violent things were actually happening in some films. The only exceptions thus far were the Netflix shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but they were only kinda-sorta in the MCU proper. There’s nothing “kinda-sorta” about Deadpool though, which will now become the MCU’s first R-rated entry.

Last we heard, Bob’s Burgers alums and sisters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin had been tapped to pen the script and Feige confirmed that duo was hard at work on it. As for Marvel’s production timelines, Spider-Man 3, Eternals, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings are currently in post-production. Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther 2, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Captain Marvel 2 are all set to start shoot over the next year and a bit.

Not to mention the next wave of Disney+ series like Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight that also need to slot in there somewhere between them. That’s already a very busy dance card, which means it’s probably a safe bet that Deadpool 3 won’t start rolling cameras until late 2022, for a possible 2023 release.

The only post-2022 MCU release confirmed so far is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for 2023, but we know that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, as well as all the recently revealed Disney+ series like Blade, Secret Invasion, and Armor Wars are still in the pipeline as well. The MCU has a very packed future ahead of it and it just got a little more f–ked up and crazy with Deadpool.

Last Updated: January 12, 2021