Kevin Feigehas said in the past that he’s not angling for R-rated movies, and when asked about the success aboutDeadpoolandLogan,he replied, “My takeaway from both of those films is not the R rating, it’s the risk they took, the chances they took, the creative boundaries that they pushed. That should be the takeaway for everyone.” And yet rumors inevitably surfaced that the upcomingBlack Widowmovie would be rated R.
ComicBook.comhas now confirmed thatBlack Widowwillnotbe rated R with Feige saying, “It never was going to be. Somebody writes, ‘I hear it’s R-rated!’ And then everybody writes it up." As it turns out, the rumor was never anything more than just that.” These rumors crop up not just because people avoid doing due diligence, but also because there’s a contingent among fandom that believes an R-rating is somehow more mature and therefore leads to a better movie.
However, as Feige correctly pointed out two years ago, the reason those R-rated movies were a success because the films pushed boundaries, not because they had the requisite amount of bloodshed and cursing that would warrant an R-rating. I’m sure theBlack Widowrumor cropped up because she’s a spy she’s supposed to be grittier or something like that, but we’ve seen plenty of great PG-13 spy movies. Also, you don’t need an R-rating to sellBlack Widow. She’s already popular and has name recognition. She doesn’t need to be radically reinvented for her own series. Marvel fans will likely show up for aBlack Widowmovie because they like seeingScarlett Johanssonas Black Widow, not because the word “fuck” is uttered more than once.
TheBlack Widowmovie doesn’t currently have a release date, and since it’s set to come out afterAvengers: Endgame, Marvel has been keeping all production details under wraps. Johansson will star, andCate Shortland(Berlin Syndrome) will direct a script fromJac Schaeffer. We’ll likely know more details later this year after everyone has seenEndgame.
