For the Love of Stan Lee, of Course Deadpool’s Rated R

There’s been a lot of chatter, both positive and negative, about Deadpool’s R rating.

It’s something like: “Well Deadpool wasn’t rated R in the comics when he was first introduced and for a long time his comics were acceptable for a wide audience.”

The counter argument goes something like “Deadpool is a character that always skirted the line of what WAS considered acceptable, and more currently went over into a more adult presentation.”

Both points are completely valid. Except the one that while true, is completely wrong.

Yes, Deadpool’s origins weren’t R rated but clever writers deftly tiptoed along the edge of what would be considered “acceptable.” Deadpool’s comic, like the character, strained against the confining nature of the comic business until he broke out in a festival of blood and gore that is more emblematic of the Deadpool of today.

So while the moviemakers could have continued to be clever and danced along the line of what Deadpool could be…they did a cannonball into a pool (get it, pool?) of butts and curse-words and went straight for the R rating because that’s what he is.

It’s likely what looks to be some excessive violence that pushed Deadpool into R territory, but the recent rique TV promos suggest the humour will be of a more adult variety as well.

Frankly? It’s also a strategic move on the part of Fox.

There is a certain crowd of people that aren’t interested in PG movies; they’re more Jessica Jones, than Avengers.

Fox has consistently ensured their X-Universe films possessed as broad an appeal as possible, trying to stick as many tickets in as many tiny hands as the could. They purposefully limited the budget of Deadpool, so it’s a modest risk to drive some new eyeballs to their X-properties because who knows, if those same people like Deadpool, maybe they’ll check out X-Men, or X-Force, or X-Fantastia…whatever Fox decides to churn out next.

No matter what the rating, Deadpool is likely to be a staple of the next generation of X-heroes pushed by Fox; the only question is how many movies he will get, which depends largely on the success of his first one. (I wrote an article about why it’s vital to go see this movie here)

While he may have started out PG, he was always an f-bomb phoenix just waiting to emerge from the ashes of a crappy weird-looking bird that`s not nearly as cool as a phoenix.

Was Fox right to make Deadpool R? We’ll see in a few weeks!