The Marvel movies that have been released under the MCU banner have all, since now, been okay for children to watch. While the increasing violence in the later movies did see them get slapped with a more adult certificate, apart from the occasional swear word they are safe.
This is all set to change and that is thanks to the Fox acquisition. We have seen it already with Star On Disney Plus - once you have put the pin protections in you can watch Arnie chopped the top of someone's head off in Commando. On a Disney service!
When it comes to Marvel, the harder R rating is coming - and that's thanks to Deadpool. The first two Deadpools were bloody and filthy, what with Wade Wilson's constant quips and the comic-book violence that wasn't afraid of a little bit of claret.
That is set to continue with Deadpool 3, head honcho Kevin Feige has revealed that the movie will definitely get an R Rating. This is a good thing - nobody wants a diluted Deadpool.
There is a problem, though. This is set to be the only R Rated Marvel movie. There are no plans for any more right now.
That sound you hear is every Blade fan choking on their tea.
That's right, the Blade we are going to get with Marvel won't be R Rated, if reports are correct. That means none of the gore and ultraviolence of the first two movies - the first film literally starts with a shower of blood.
This will be a big disappointment for many. Blade has always been one of the richer Marvel characters, packed with violence and bloodletting.
This all came out of a TCA panel, where Feige was talking. He said about the R Rating and future Marvel movies: "I think we target everything we’re doing now for kids and adults. So I think your question is: more adult or R-rated. You know, other than Deadpool, which has already established itself as a certain genre and a certain rating that we’ve already said we would not mess with when we start working with Deadpool – which we have.
"Other than that, we’ve not ever encountered a story, or a storyline, or a character’s journey that a PG-13 or the tone or the ratings that we’ve been using up to this point has prevented us. We’ve never been held back by it. If we ever are, then certainly there could be a discussion to be had now that there are other outlets like Hulu, like Star. But that just hasn’t been the case yet. We’ve been able to tell all the kinds of stories we’ve wanted to with the tonality and the rating structure that we have now."
Marvel has so far gotten a lot of things right with the new Blade movie. The casting of Mahershala Ali is faultless, bringing on Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour is fantastic but if it is hobbled by its rating then it will be hard to make the Blade movie that fans really want.
Now, one glimmer of light is that Feige's quote says that 'it isn't the case yet'. So there could be hope that when he reads the script he slaps a big R on the front of it.
It's not looking good, though.
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