It's no secret that new ground is being broken with the upcoming Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine. After a decade of exclusively producing family-friendly fare, Marvel Studios is now preparing to release its first R-rated feature, and there are no punches being pulled, as previews have featured some outrageous language, violence, and inuendo.
Naturally, the movie (featuring an all-star cast led by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman) has fans super excited, but there has been one negative side effect behind the scenes: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige found himself in the position where he needed to explain certain NSFW jokes to his co-workers.
In a recent interview with Variety just ahead of Deadpool & Wolverine's release later this month, Feige revealed that he was personally in the know about certain adults-only material that is included for laughs in Deadpool & Wolverine, but the same couldn't be said about everyone presently employed by Marvel Studios. Said the executive,
There’s a line in the red-band trailer — you don’t have to write this in the article, for crying out loud! — about pegging. I know what pegging is — it’s in the first ‘Deadpool’ movie. But there were people I work with who didn’t know what it was. I had to explain it to them.
For those of you who need a bit of a refresher course here: pegging is joked about in the first Deadpool movie during the sex montage that includes a special celebration of International Women's Day. As for the first Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson drops a line about it when TVA Agents show up at his door and whip out their Time Sticks (he even breaks the fourth wall noting that it's new material for Marvel Studios). You can rewatch it below.
I don't think it's super hard to have empathy with Kevin Feige in this circumstance. If an adult person doesn't know what pegging is, that suggests a certain level of innocence that is pretty rare here in the year 2024, and explaining it (especially in a work environment) presumably requires some exceptionally delicate language and phrasing. I can imagine a lot of similar discussions happening all around the country later this month in cases where parents take their too-young kids/teens to see Deadpool & Wolverine and questions are asked and uncomfortably answered during the car ride home.
After what feels like an exceptionally long wait, Deadpool & Wolverine is finally almost here and will be arriving in theaters everywhere on July 26. Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming weeks, as you can be sure that we'll have plenty of news, feature, interview and review coverage for you both in the run-up to and after the release of the anticipated blockbuster. There are hopes that it will eventually place high in our ranking of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
