Marvel Studios’ R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine is dropping an F-bomb on the MCU. Not the F-dash-dash-dash word — although there are plenty of those — but the other F-word: Friendship. Disney has been showing off footage from the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to receive an R rating which, according to the MPA, is officially rated R for “strong bloody violence and language throughout, gore and sexual references.” But the ultra-violent, foul-mouthed Deadpool 3 is also something else: wholesome as f—.
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“I think we’ve been edgy in the past, but my favorite thing is that wespan all types of genres and tones. I think it gets a lot of attentionthat this is our first R-rated movie, but it is the third R-rated Deadpool movie,so we wanted to stay true to what Ryan [Reynolds] has built over those last coupleof movies and we weren’t going to undo that,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige told Deadline.
Feige — who uncharacteristically dropped an F-bomb on stage when he described Deadpool & Wolverine as “f—ing awesome” at CinemaCon — added that the movie, which teams a retired Wade Wilson (Reynolds) with a washed-up Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who “let down his entire world,” has a Hulk-sized heart.
“I will say — Hugh and Ryanhave talked about this — and I think people can tell from the trailerand from the press tour so far, yes, it’s R-rated, yes there’s somelanguage and blood, but the film is incredibly emotional. I keep callingit the most wholesome R-rated film that anybody can ever see,” Feige said. “It reallyis a celebration of friendship and family and of found family. I don’twant to overdo it, but for all the R-rated raunchiness that getsattention, when people see the movie, it’s going to be about howheartfelt it is — in my opinion, much more than the first two Deadpool films. That’s what I’m really excited about, once people get past the ‘F’ words and the R-rating, to see how sweet it is.”
Reynolds and Jackman also teased that the first film since 2009’s Fox-made X-Men Origins: Wolverine to feature their two characters together is as edgy as it is emotional.
“These are my closest friends,” Reynolds said of Jackman and director Shawn Levy during a recent fan event in Shanghai, China. “So to make a movietogether, and to have the experience be something that is easily thebest experience of my entire life and incredibly profound… but thenfor the film to exceed that experience, and be even more special andmore emotional than anything that I’ve ever been a part of and funnier because it’s so emotional, it allows so much of that funny to come out in interesting ways.”
“I thought that making my first Marvel movie would be scary, orchallenging in new ways, and it was a big task,” Levy added. “Becauseyou’re telling a big story of anti-heroes who are also heroes. But Ihave to say: Marvel let us write the script we wanted to write and makethe movie we wanted to make. It is an MCU movie — so it is filled withaction, adventure, and big themes — but it is very faithful to the Deadpool tone, which is audacious, irreverent, and always surprising.”
Reynolds and Jackman star alongside returning Deadpool castmembers Morena Baccarin, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Rob Delaney, BriannaHildebrand, Shioli Kutsuna, and Stefan Kapičić, with Succession star Matthew Macfadyen joining the MCU as TVA Agent Paradox and The Crown‘s Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova. Marvel Studios’ R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine opens only in theaters July 26th.
