Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019 opened up a whole new horizon for the House of Mouse and their most-prized franchise. While they had worked out a deal with Sony Pictures to allow for Spider-Man to appear in the MCU, there was one glaring missing piece to their Marvel puzzle in the X-Men. By buying Fox, Marvel Studios was now free to include the famed mutants in their super-powered stories, including fan-favorite Deadpool.
The Merc with a Mouth has risen to prominence in recent years, thanks to the pair of Deadpool films from Fox. Almost immediately after the Disney purchase of Fox, a Ryan Reynolds-led Deadpool 3 was unofficially announced as for pre-production.
The threequel has stayed fairly shrouded in mystery up to this point and has been the cause of many questions since its announcement. The biggest of these concerns comes with the Deadpool franchise's signature mature bend. This embrace of the R-rating has been what has made the Deadpool name get as big as it has, and many wonder if it will lose that in the transition to the MCU.
Well, one of Deadpool 3's writers has spoken up about just this, as script work continues on the project.
Will Disney Dampen Deadpool
In an interview with Den of Geek, Deadpool 3 writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick addressed fan concerns that the character would be censored now that they are working under the Disney umbrella.
Reese called working on the project a "thrill" as they have finally gotten "the band back together," however this time doing it under the "backdrop [of] the MCU:"
“It’s an absolute thrill to have the band back together, to have a new backdrop in the MCU with new characters, new villains, that kind of thing. You know, it’s never a marriage we necessarily saw coming—Fox and Disney, that was an external thing [separate] from our storytelling process. But we’re absolutely finding the serendipity and the gold in that situation, or we’re trying to.”
The pair said that the film would continue the trend of poking fun at other Marvel/DC characters, as well as pop culture as a whole, while reassuring fans that "Deadpool is gonna be Deadpool,” even if the threequel is under the Disney banner now. When prodded about the potential cleansing of the Merc with a Mouth by the family-friendly studio, Wenick commented saying, "Don’t worry about that.” He added that Disney has been "very supportive" about the character's R-rated requirements:
“They’ve been very supportive with regard to that. Now when it comes to a particular joke, if we cross a line, maybe we’ll hear at some point, ‘Maybe not that joke.’ But I think they’ve been incredibly supportive of what we’re doing, because obviously we were doing it separate from them for a long time, and I think they’ve seen the success and they’ve had their own even greater success. So hopefully it’ll be a marriage made in heaven. But we’ve definitely got their support, and that’s a great thing to feel.”
A New Era for Wade Wilson
Whether things change on-screen or not, this is a new era for the Deadpool movie franchise. Just being a part of the Marvel Studios family means that nothing is off-limits. However, worries from the moviegoing public about the potential cleaning up of the character for Marvel Studios are justified.
Disney is a company that is very concerned about the brand image, doing everything it can to exude a certain kind of public identity. Deadpool as a character (especially Ryan Reynolds' version of the character), pushes the limits of what that identity may be.
However, it seems like the studio - at least up to this point - is letting the Deadpool 3 team be and make the movie that they want to make. Disney and Marvel Studios know what makes the Deadpool franchise special and do not want to mess with a formula that works.
When the Merc with a Mouth shows up elsewhere in the MCU, he could be a toned-down PG-13 version of the character, but in his own movie, they should let him go all out and be the vulgar, quippy, and outrageous anti-hero he deserves to be.
