New Mutants’ Disney+ Debut Would Mean No More R-Rated Marvel Movies

In the event you didn’t make it to Twitter at any point throughout the day on Tuesday, one Marvel-related rumor ran rampant. At some point this week — probably during a Comic-Con@Home panel later in a matter of days — Disney is going to announce that New Mutants will be added to Disney+ later this fall; that’s the rumor, at least. If that’s the case, a whole can of worms will be opened for a whole variety of reasons.

The major reason being the Josh Boone feature would be the biggest theatrical release that’s been bumped to streaming or VOD due to coronavirus-related shutdowns. Because of that, one could argue Disney will keep a set of eyes (or several) on the movie’s performance to gauge whether or not they’d follow a similar path for other movies that have been consistently delayed — you know, like Mulan or…believe it not…Black Widow. That’s neither here nor there. We’re going to talk about another worm in the can about to open.

Should New Mutants pass the censors and be deemed worthy enough for inclusion on Disney+, Marvel Studios would never have the need to make R-rated content. From the moment fans saw the first teaser trailer for New Mutants, it was evident it was something scarier than your typical superhero fare. In fact, it came across as downright frightening with jump scares and all.

If it lands on Disney+, that would set a precedent where Marvel Studios could continue crafting properties in the vein of PG-13 horror and they’d still be included on the new streaming platform. There wouldn’t be a need to bump the property to Hulu, as many thought — this writer included. Instead, Disney+ could even serve as the hub for horror-based Marvel characters adjacent to projects like Blade and Moon Knight.

By now, you’ve probably already dropped out because you got nauseous by the idea of a Blade or Deadpool movie rated PG-13, but there are still a lot of moving parts involved in the equation. Maybe when it comes to New Mutants, desperate times require desperate measures and it’s a temporary stop-gap measure to put some content into the marketplace.

On the flip side, maybe the powers that be have suddenly decided Disney+ could reach a larger audience and include some “heavier” content on the service, so long as it doesn’t explicitly cross over that R-rated line.

The New Mutants has yet to set a release date.

What Marvel characters do you think absolutely have to be featured in an R-rated property? Think it over and let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!