Movies

The Merc With A Mouth Will Be Free To Get Extra Mouthy: 'Deadpool' Officially Rated R

deadpool-hottoys-thumbsup
By Angie Han

All the marketing for Deadpool so far has made it abundantly clear that this isn't your typical PG-13, fun-for-the-whole-family superhero adventure. There are dick jokes, poop jokes, exploding heads, and oh so many f-bombs. But just in case you're still worried 20th Century Fox will try to rein in the Merc with a Mouth, let this news put your mind at ease: Deadpool now officially has an R-rating from the MPAA. 

As reported on Box Office Mojo, Deadpool has been rated R for "strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity." Which sounds about right, if you've seen the red-band trailers. There's plenty of brutal violence, resulting in actual bloodshed. (As opposed to the oddly bloodless violence of most PG-13 action movies.) Deadpool says "fuck" more times in the two-minute red-band trailer than most superheroes get to over the course of their entire franchise. The promos have also featured a scene set in a strip club, and a rather athletic-looking love scene with Wade and Vanessa.

Although Deadpool isn't the first superhero movie to be rated R, the vast majority of these films aim for, and get, PG-13 ratings. They're expensive projects with potential four-quadrant appeal, and an R-rating would just handicap their box office potential. But Deadpool himself is unlike most superheroes. Fans love him for his sarcastic, unfiltered, totes inappropes sense of humor, and were none too pleased when X-Men Origins: Wolverine literally sealed his mouth shut.

Even so, it took some convincing to get the studio on board with Deadpool's projected R rating. "At first it was R, then PG, then R again," director Tim Miller revealed at Comic-Con. "But ultimately, I think they saw that the world is ready for something different." Star Ryan Reynolds remarked, "I think it's an actual miracle the studio let us make Deadpool, let alone a rated-R Deadpool."

And while there's more to Deadpool (and hopefully Deadpool) than sex, violence, and curse words, the freedom to use all three liberally has allowed the filmmakers to make what Reynolds (while admitting his own bias) described as "the most faithful adaptation of a superhero from a comic to a movie I've ever seen."

Deadpool opens February 12. Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Ed Skrein, and Gina Carano also star.

Recommended