James Gunn is sure Marvel will make an R-rated movie at some point

Last Updated on August 10, 2021

While Warner Bros. has experimented with R-rated DC content such as Joker and The Suicide Squad, Marvel Studios has remained firmly in the PG-13 realm since it began, but James Gunn believes that it's only a matter of time before that changes.

While speaking with IndieWire, The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn was asked whether or not he thinks Marvel will ever release an R-rated film.

I think they will, I think they will, I’m almost sure they will. Not ‘Guardians’ though, because ‘Guardians’ are family movies, so it’s different. People are like, ‘Finally, they let you do R rating. What would “Guardians” be like if that was R rated?’ I’m like, ‘But it’s not.'

James Gunn continued: "I could go off and make a Drax movie that’s R-rated, that I would love to do, like barbarian Drax. But the ‘Guardians’ movies are fables, and I don’t think of them like that. I don’t write them like that. It’s a different type of movie, and you can have some gore and some scary darkness in there and things like that, which is good, but it’s not the rock and roll of ‘Suicide Squad.'" There are characters who definitely lend themselves to an R-rated more than others, and we've always heard rumblings of Marvel entertaining the notion of an R-rated MCU movie, and the most likely candidate is the third Deadpool movie. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed earlier this year that Deadpool 3 is still being developed as an R-rated movie, but it remains to be seen if the film will be quite as R-rated as its predecessors. Aside from Deadpool, what MCU characters could you see in an R-rated adventure?

The official synopsis for The Suicide Squad:

Welcome to hell — a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.

The Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 5, 2021 and start streaming on HBO Max the following day. You can check out a review from our own JimmyO right here.