Anna Daniels
There are questions worth pondering about how Deadpool’s R-rated existence can fit into Disney’s oeuvre, but it’s a little technical. It would be difficult to give Deadpool a full-fledged solo film within the MCU due to scheduling problems, since MCU movies are planned years in advance with overarching narratives in mind. But if you’re not necessarily married to Deadpool being an MCU film (a real possibility), there’s not much to worry about at all. Disney makes Disney movies, obviously — your Beauty and the Beasts and Moanas, et cetera — but the Mouse House both produces and distributes a lot more than that. Many of those films don’t even begin to fit the moniker of “Disney movie”: Pretty Woman, Coyote Ugly, even Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (rated R!). Yes, these are all films distributed by the Disney-owned company Buena Vista Pictures and produced under the Disney-backed Touchstone Pictures banner.
Disney has no problem releasing films outside of the usual stringent standards it reserves for blockbuster-slash-animated films; the company simply releases them through different distributors it owns instead. The company fronts the money for them, too; do you remember Calendar Girls, the British comedy about elderly women putting together a nude calendar to raise money for cancer research? That was produced by Buena Vista and also released under Touchstone. This could easily be the case, ultimately, for Deadpool’s trilogy film if and when it ever comes to fruition. Disney could also release Deadpool 3 under its OG (but slightly modified) banner, 20th Century Studios. Reynolds, who has been working in the industry for years, would have at least some depth of knowledge about this, and that’s probably part of the reason why he doesn’t feel a need to sweat over risqué content as of yet.
Written by: Looper
