Deadpool Banned in China

Citing graphic violence, nudity, and language, China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has banned Deadpool from screening in the country, which is the world’s second-largest movie market.

THR reports that sources close to the 20th Century Fox/Marvel Studios co-production say they can’t tone down Deadpool for the Chinese market, since the areas China has objected to would cause story problems if cut.

A U.S. YouTube host had recently petitioned for a PG-13 cut of the movie to make it more broadly appealing and to allow younger fans of the comics and other Marvel movies to see Deadpool. It seems as though that’s off the table, too, if Fox believes it would be impossible to cut the movie down to where it might be acceptable for China.

The film, based on a violent and smart-alecky antihero, was stuck in development for years, and part of the problem was reportedly that Fox wanted to make a PG-13 movie that had the potential to be a blockbuster, while the creative staff behind the film wanted to go with a hard R.

In early 2015, director Matthew Vaughn’s gleefully violent and comically gory Kingsman: The Secret Service managed to open in China, and made $24.25 million in its opening three days.

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.