Feige has announced that Ryan Reynolds’ R-rated Deadpool threequel is the only R-rated movie that Marvel is planning to make any time soon, suggesting that the new Blade movie will be rated PG-13 like the rest of the MCU. That might not be such a great idea.
R: Wesley Snipes’ R-Rated Movies Were So Much Fun
The three movies in Wesley Snipes’ Blade trilogy were rated R and they were endless fun, especially in the hands of Guillermo del Toro, who made Blade II’s action sequences a blood-soaked delight.
Snipes also used the R rating to ad-lib profane one-liners, like “Some motherf**kers are always trying to ice-skate uphill,” which helped to redefine the character.
PG-13: The MCU Shouldn’t Overuse The R Rating
Kevin Feige has said that the third Deadpool movie is the only R-rated effort on Marvel’s horizon right now, and this is a smart move. Deadpool 3 could easily set a precedent for the MCU to release a bunch of R-rated movies.
Movies like Birds of Prey and the 2019 Hellboy reboot have shown that the R rating can easily be used as a crutch for gratuitous violence and excessive profanity. The MCU shouldn’t overuse it.
R: Vampire Stories Need Gore
Although gore can easily be used excessively, like in the Saw sequels, a certain level of gore is necessary for vampire stories. It’s impossible to make a movie about the bloodsucking undead without a good deal of on-screen blood.
Technically, Blade isn’t a story about vampires; it’s a story about a vampire slayer living in a vampire-infested world, but if anything, that story requires even more blood than straightforward vampire stories.
PG-13: It Would Fit In With The Rest Of The MCU
After more than a decade, the MCU has a pretty well-established tone that an R-rated movie would disrupt. Wesley Snipes’ movies had no obligation to fit into a wider universe, but the new Blade reboot will be an entry in a larger franchise.
In the wider context of the MCU, it would make more sense for the Blade reboot to be rated PG-13, even if the character is better suited to an R rating.
R: The Blade Comics Have An R-Rated Sensibility
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was arguably the most popular character in Fox’s X-Men franchise from the beginning, but his action scenes always felt restricted by the PG-13 ratings because, as proven by Logan, a guy with metal claws needs an R rating to really shine.
The same goes for Blade, whose solo movies will feel sanitized if the R-rated sensibility of his comic books isn’t translated to the screen faithfully.
PG-13: Kids Should Be Able To Enjoy Blade
The only downside with R-rated comic book movies is that kids can’t watch them on the big screen (unless they have really cool parents), so their experience of the franchise is limited.
Blade is one of Marvel’s most awesome characters and the MCU’s young audience deserves to enjoy his on-screen adventures just as much as older fans.
R: Blade Stories Are Essentially Horror Stories
Essentially, with their hordes of vampires, Blade stories are horror stories, so Blade movies are horror movies above all. The MCU is moving into the horror genre with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so there is precedent for the Blade reboot to be a horror movie.
Movies like The Others and A Quiet Place have proven that horror doesn’t need to be rated R to be truly scary — but it helps.
PG-13: It Would Make Blade Easier To Integrate Into The Avengers Movies
Now that Iron Man and Captain America has cleared up some room in the line-up and Phase Four is charging forward with a bunch of new characters, it’ll be interesting to see what the cast of the fifth Avengers movie looks like.
If Blade’s MCU adventures are rated PG-13, the character will be easier to integrate into the Avengers movies. There’s probably only room for one R-rated wildcard among Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
R: It Doesn’t Need A Huge Budget
From a studio’s perspective, the drawback of an R-rated movie is that it doesn’t get in front of as many eyes as a PG-13 movie, so it doesn’t have as much chance of box office success.
But just like Deadpool, a Blade movie doesn’t need to cost $200 million. A movie about a daywalking vampire hunter could be produced for around $50 million, which significantly lowers the risk of an R rating.
PG-13: Creative Boundaries Can Be A Good Thing
The main appeal of the R rating is the creative freedom it allows, but that freedom can be a bad thing if it’s wielded recklessly. There’s an unnecessarily gory scene in Birds of Prey that didn’t need to exist in which Ewan McGregor cuts off a man’s face.
The restrictions of the PG-13 rating can sometimes result in stronger movies because the filmmakers can’t rely on violence and profanity to get the audience’s attention.