Following Hugh Jackman’s acclaimed legacy in the sometimes cheesy X-Men movies (toads and lightning anyone?), the clawed Canadian bowed out with a noir Western thriller movie that broke the mould. What really separated the PG-13s from R-rated movies was David Mangold’s Logan. Aside from this, it’s easy to forget the uber-violent Kick-Ass movies also fall under the Marvel umbrella. Notably, both Tim Miller and David Leitch’s Deadpool movies have been rated R. Since Iron Man kick-started the MCU in 2008, there have been numerous R-rated Marvel movies. The notion of an R-rated MCU movie needs to be distinguished from an R-rated Marvel movie. As the pressure mounts for MCU overlord Kevin Feige to bathe in the bloodier side of Marvel Comics, it’s only a matter of time before an R-rated MCU outing sticks its middle finger to critics – and we couldn’t be happier. In a different realm, R-rated juggernauts like Deadpool, Joker, and James Gunn’s recent splatterfest The Suicide Squad show comic book movies targeting higher age brackets can work. Characters like Ghost Rider and the Punisher are primed for a more adult-oriented production when they return, and a brutal Heroes for Hire series could sit neatly in the streaming service Disney Plus’s new Starz branch.

Nowadays, there’s enough of an audience and an appetite out there for R-ratings to take a gamble. Back in the early days of Phase One, it was too much of a risk to slap an R-rating on Thor and send him off to Hel. While the MCU continues to flourish, there are always questions about what’s next. Although there’s been plenty of death and destruction across the MCU’s 25-movie run, we’ve never crossed that crucial PG-13 boundary. For the past 13 years, the world’s highest-grossing franchise has made its money delivering family-friendly fare. There are dark(er) times ahead for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with talk finally turning to when/if the MCU will embrace its R-rated potential.

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