A PG-13 DEADPOOL Film In The MCU Is Fine As Long As Ryan Reynolds Is Involved Says Tim Miller

According to the director of the first Deadpool film, as long as Ryan Reynolds is portraying Wade Wilson, the project doesn't need an R-rating.

Speaking to Inverse about Love, Death & Robots Vol. 2, Tim Miller stated, "I think Ryan Reynolds' take on the character and the way he embraces the particular kind of insanity — even if you said he's not gonna use four-letter words — would still be there. He still is that character. You can take the R-rated parts out of it if you wanted and it would still be Deadpool if Ryan was doing it.”

That's high praise from Miller and somewhat surprising, considering the fact that Miller walked away from helming Deadpool 2 due to creative differences with Reynolds over where to take the character in the sequel. Based on the comment above, it seems the split was amicable or that Miller and Reynolds have mended fences over the years.

One thing's for sure, there's plenty of material for Deadpool to poke fun at now that 20th Century Fox has joined Marvel Studios under the Disney umbrella. The 'Merc with a Mouth' definitely needs to riff on the fact that Josh Brolin played Cable in Deadpool 2 and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

The last we heard on the project, Kevin Feige had stated that Deadpool 3 would be R-rated and set in the MCU, with Bob's Burgers scribes Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin penning the script (with input from Reynolds). However, with much of the MCU landscape shifting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Marvel needing to essentially make up a year of lost revenue, who knows if Feige and co. are still willing to take such a bold risk.