How R-Rated Movies Could Work In The MCU (But Only For Certain Characters)

gamerant.com:

While the DCEU and X-Men franchises have dared to release R-rated comic book films, Marvel Studios has always stuck to the box-office-friendly PG-13 rating. Nobody could accuse the bulletproof superhero studio of taking the wrong strategy with its movies, but sticking to PG-13 ratings does limit the stories that MCU filmmakers are able to tell (and the stakes of their action sequences). Deadpool 3 is confirmed to aim for an R rating, but Marvel’s head honcho Kevin Feige has confirmed that Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming Merc with a Mouth threequel is the only R-rated MCU movie currently in development.

James Mangold’s uncompromising approach to Logan and the stunning blood-soaked visuals of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen have proven that an R rating can work spectacularly in the superhero movie genre, but not every story warrants an R rating. The Guardians of the Galaxy’s banter is just as biting without the NSFW vocabulary available to James Gunn in the DCEU. Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man quips wouldn’t necessarily be funnier with Apatowian profanity (although it would’ve been great to hear Robert Downey, Jr. drop at least one F-bomb in the role of Tony Stark). But a movie about a grizzled, ageless, near-invincible, PTSD-ridden war veteran with blood-stained retractable metal claws in his knuckles and a ton of skeletons in his closet needs to be rated R. Switching from PG-13 to R isn’t the same as establishing the rules of a multiverse and bringing in characters from other movie-verses. Having a hard-R tone in one MCU project won’t necessarily have any ramifications on the rest of the franchise.

Deadpool 3 Being The MCU's Only R-Rated Movie Is A Good Thing

But that could be the case with an R-rated movie starring one of Marvel’s flagship heroes,