Fox’s two Deadpool movies and Logan have made their way onto Disney+, becoming the first R-rated movies on the service. Now that the films are available to watch on the streaming platform, the Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) is slamming the Disney-owned provider for breaking a promise it made upon launch.
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Then, Disney+ executives said the service would release only family-friendly content. PTC President Tim Winter says the addition of Deadpool and Logan now violates that promise.
“Three years ago, the Walt Disney Company made a promise to families: No R-rated movies on Disney+, they said. It’s a family-focused platform, they said. We have Hulu for our edgier adult fare, they said. It turns out they were lying to us,” Winter said in a press release Friday. “After decades of corporate brilliance establishing itself as the world’s most trusted brand for families, today’s C-level suite at Disney has decided to flush it all down the toilet.”
Earlier this year, Disney+ also added the “DefendersVerse” of shows that previously aired on Netflix, each one carrying a TV-MA rating due to adult content shown in each of them.
“While Disney+ points subscribers to its parental controls, the mere presence of R-rated and TV-MA rated content violates the trust and sensibilities of families. What took decades to build is now taking mere months to erase,” Winter added. “One day in the no-too-distant future, business schools will point back to this abrupt corporate U-turn as they analyze what happened to the once-great Walt Disney Company. And in the meantime, families will continue to be woefully underserved by Hollywood.”
In 2019, Bob Iger was still overseeing the company and was reportedly the executive insistent on keeping things family-friendly. After Bob Chapek took over for Iger at the onset of the pandemic, the two were rumored to have been arguing about the matter.
“Bob Iger ‘insisted on sticking to the narrow definition,’ one of those sources told me,” one insider said at the time. “Chapek ‘intends to expand it,’ but the anxiety among some insiders is that the famously data-driven Chapek lacks the creative vision to do it the right way.”
He added, “‘Notice that Netflix spends insane amounts and makes a ton of crap,’ the source said. ‘A handful of phenom hits in a giant pile of crud.’ Is that what Disney wants for Disney+?”
