Kevin Feige Says ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ R-Rating Was “Never In Question” Amid MCU Debut

Don’t expect Deadpool to ease up on the F-bombs just because he’s at Disney now.

At Monday’s Deadpool & Wolverine premiere in Los Angeles, Kevin Feige told Deadline that watering down the character (played by Ryan Reynolds) was “never in question,” despite it being the first R-rated title in the MCU.

“Bob Iger had said very early on that the other Deadpools were R, so this could be R. And we weren’t going to undo any of the great work Ryan had done in those first movies,” he said on the red carpet. “So, that was never in question.

“So, it all became not about ‘What is the bar of R?’ It became ‘How do we raise the bar with emotion and with character?’ And that’s what all three of these guys [Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and director Shawn Levy] have done,” added Feige.

The Marvel Studios CEO previously said that an R-rating is also “inherent with the character of Blade” as Mahershala Ali prepares to join the MCU as the daywalker, noting to BlackTree TV that the previous trilogy starring Wesley Snipes was “great” and “they were all rated-R.”

During Monday’s premiere, Feige said that Deadpool & Wolverine — premiering July 26 in theaters — will also mark the introduction of mutants to the MCU. “We’ve been dreaming for a very long time, certainly since the Fox acquisition, of bringing mutants into the MCU” he told Deadline.

“And this is the beginning of that in a very big way,” added Feige. “We hinted, we teased. This is sort of jumping with both feet into the mutant pool, and it’s only going to grow from here.”

Before his first solo outing in 2016 and its 2018 sequel, Reynolds originated the live-action role of Deadpool (aka Wade Wilson) alongside Jackman in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.