The MCU Probably Won't Go R-Rated Any Time Soon

During a panel interview with the Television Critics Association, Marvel Studios CCO Kevin Feige confirmed that while they have begun "working with Deadpool," a famously R-rated character they recently acquired during the Disney merger with Fox Studios, other MCU projects will likely stay PG-13. This confirmation came thanks to a question about the future of Marvel's projects skewing more adult.

This news may put a damper on the buzz surrounding the rights to characters like The Punisher and Jessica Jones returning from Netflix to Disney. The famously ultra violent Netflix Marvel universe has been a point of much speculation and theorization for fans now that the MCU stepped into the streaming TV show arena in earnest.

That doesn't mean the future of the MCU is PG-13 all the way down, however. Feige explained that Marvel has already begun work with Deadpool which has "already established itself as a certain genre and a certain rating, and we've already said we wouldn't mess with that when we start working with [it]." Feige then teased that they have, in fact, begun work with Deadpool.

But this isn't a limitation, as far as Feige is concerned. "We have never encountered a story or a storyline, or a character's journey, that a PG-13, or any of the ratings we've been using up to this point, has prevented us [from telling]. We've never been held back by it. If we ever are, then certainly there could be a discussion to be had, now that we have other outlets like Hulu and like Star, but that has yet to be the case."

Disney has recently added parental controls to Disney+ which would allow for more R-rated content to be available on the service without harming Disney's famously family-friendly brand. However, it sounds like there are no currently announced MCU projects that will need to be met with rating concerns.