Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige Confirms Deadpool 3 Will Be Their First R-Rated Film

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has officially confirmed that Deadpool 3 will be Marvel’s “first R-rated film.” Feige is out doing press for the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania this week, and in one in-depth interview, he had to address the irony of mutants being one of the biggest challenges facing the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise right now. After all, Kevin Feige really got his start working with Marvel characters on the screen as a producer’s assistant on the X-Men movies, where he helped a newcomer actor named Hugh Jackman to get settled in Hollywood! 

When EW asked Kevin Feige how it feels to have mutants on the brain again, Feige had the following to say: 

“It’s amazing. And we’ve got Hugh Jackman coming back for our first Deadpool film within the MCU. That’s our first R-rated film. To have Hugh come back is incredible. For me, personally, that is where I started. I remember sitting behind the camera – well behind the camera – at his audition for the film. It was his first on-set audition, and he flew up to Toronto to do a read with Anna Paquin. For him, and for me, and I think for all of the fans of Marvel, it’s unbelievable what has happened in those 23 years. It’s very full-circle having him come back in this new Deadpool film.”

What Is Deadpool 3 About? 

Last year, Marvel, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman dropped the shocking announcement on fans that Deadpool 3 would be an event film that sees Reynolds Deadpool make his first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – while in the midst of a strange odd-pair road trip (likely through the multiverse) with none other than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. 

Finer details of what storyline propels Deadpool and Wovlerine’s journey; what cameo crossovers there could be, or how it all connects to the MCU Multiverse Saga currently unfolding, remain to be seen. So far there are at least some pretty big hints how Deadpool 3 could draw in elements of both Fox’s X-Men Universe and the MCU. ComicBook.com exclusively learned that Prof. X actor Patrick Stewart has been told to “stand by” for another possible appearance, following his cameo (and horrific death scene) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

When Does Deadpool 3 Take Place? 

In order to keep the revered events of Hugh Jackman’s (former) final Wolverine movie, Logan, intact within X-Men movie continuity, it’s been announced that the events of Deadpool 3 will take place before Logan in the X-Men timeline. Presumably, whatever happens in Deadpool 3, the version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine that ends up in the timeline of Logan will get returned to where he needs to be for that film to happen – or, a new separate timeline is created, where Jackan’s Wolverine can go to the MCU, while his variant still lives, fights, and dies in Logan. It’s all possible in the Marvel Multiverse.

Deadpool 3 is set for release on November 8,  2024.