I’m not here to talk about Deadpool breaking records at the box office, because we all knew it would, but actually to bring up the point that Deadpool made R rated comic book movies a viable option. When the Blade movie came out only those reading Ghost Rider, The Nightstalkers and Blades solo books really knew about his and what he was about. This was back in a time where comic book movies weren’t being made yearly and there wasn’t even a dream of a multi tier plan for sequels and spin offs. This was a time where the only casting for comic book movies was done in Wizard magazing in the fan castings page. Blade came out and was good for the most part, and brought decent enough money to warrant two sequels but it really had no affect on Comic Book movies. In fact you could say it stopped the progression, because a year before Blade came out an R rated Spawn was released. Spawn had it’s own problems and hopefully when the next one comes out we get to see a lot more Violator. Anyway, back to the topic at hand, Deadpool will now open the doors to R rated comic book movies that warrant that kind of story being told. This is a time where there are comic book based shows 5 days out of the week and giveaways online to get tickets to see a edited scene from Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Deadpool shows that the superhero fatigue argument is a lie and now it’s time to see what else can come out that can be given an R rating and need it.
Let’s take a recent example in form of producer Simon Kinberg giving an interview to Collider
I think there are some stories that could be R-rated. I don’t know what they are, I mean I think the mainline X-Men movies have their own tone, which is a more operatic tone. It’s more dramatic, it is more PG-13 in a way. X-Force I could see being R-rated, and who knows?
Now let us take that quote, break it apart and see if we can make it work. Deadpool 2 has been greenlit and Cable has already been named as starring in it, which means that both Cable and Deadpool will have starred in R rated movies. It has also been rumored that Wolverine will be leaving the X-Men movies after the next one, this starts the speculation train as Deadpool could easily show up with Cable at the end of the third Wolverine movie and offer him a job in X-Force. I don’t think they’ll pull Psylocke away from the X-Men movies, but they since Colossus was CGI he could also be a part of the team. Bishop could easily be introduced in the next Deadpool movie with Cable and Domino could be someone they pick up. That’s 5 people right there that would make up X-Force. On the other hand there is concept art showing Cable, Domino, Warpath, Cannonball and Ferral as members, so they could ditch Deadpool and take it that way.
Wesley Snipes has been pitching a daughter of Blade movie, and if they do it right now I think Morbius would be the best choice in villain. An R rating would have it keep with the other Blade movies and introduce the living vampire himself, all while showing the necessary violence. It was rumored that Venom would have his own movie, and even though he’s gone back and forth between villain and hero I don’t think a R rating would work. There’s something about the Spider-Man franchise and his rogues gallery that says PG-13.I don’t know if DC will follow with any mainstream names part of an R rating. The Suicide Squad is PG-13 and they won’t dare put any potential Justice League characters in anything near an R.
Due to the fact that all comic book movies have, for the most part, finished filming it’s not like we’ll see a new one soon. If we do see another R rated movie, it’ll be when Deadpool 2 comes out.