Fans of Deadpool have not had it easy these past few years. Ever since Ryan Reynolds portrayed the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool fans have begged and pleaded for a standalone film. Of course, once test footage from said standalone film was leaked, the demand for a Deadpool film grew exponentially. Finally, after what seemed like decades, it looked like the fans would get what they desired: Fox announced that the 'Merc with a Mouth' would indeed receive a standalone film, and Deadpool would debut in theaters on Feb. 12, 2016.
Unfortunately, Deadpool fans always get bad news mixed in with the good. According to the Schmoes Knows podcast, Deadpool may not release with the R rating many had hoped for, but the movie will likely get a PG-13 rating instead.
For casual comic book movie connoisseurs, such a rating may not seem like much, but Deadpool is an inherently different character. Tony Stark and Thor would seem incredibly out-of-place dropping F-bombs on screen, but for Deadpool, such behavior is normal. The character has always been crass and violent (and that's putting it lightly); a PG-13 rating would effectively squash that aspect of the character.
According to the podcast, director Tim Miller has found a way to keep the character intact without an R rating:
"I heard from the director that they finally figured out the script, and it was right before this was announced, that they figured out, and you guys are all going to hate this, that they figured out how to make it PG-13 and therefore not lose its soul - that's a quote - of the script so they can make it."
It's certainly hard to imagine the Deadpool film without a lot of harsh language; even the test footage, which was under two minutes in length, had a number of lines that wouldn't be fit for a PG-13 rating. The same goes for violence, and while the test footage wasn't exactly gory, it's another important aspect of the character that could be impacted by such a rating. Ultimately, however, the quality of the movie depends on the script itself. A PG-13 rating doesn't necessarily mean the movie will be terrible, of course.
Until the film is officially rated, everything is still unconfirmed. For now, Deadpool is still set for a Feb. 12, 2016 release date.
