This is a story which has been online for a few days now and The Daily SuperHero would've covered it sooner but some due diligence had to be done looking at all the angles of this story before reporting on the topic. This story originated from a pamphlet page circulating at Toy Fair 2016 in New York last weekend. This alleged pamphlet shows that Fox is anticipating that WOLVERINE 3 may be R-rated.
Here's the image making the rounds online...
While some are inclined to say this is a fan Photoshop job, there could be some truth to that because where are all the other photos of this pamphlet online? Something like this will usually get more than just one photo uploaded online. But at the same time, there's been no comment from Fox by requests sent out by Entertainment Weekly. Also, if this was something that was meant to be private then Fox lawyers would have had the Imgur website pull this image down... and they have not done this.
EW's own sources have told them that WOLVERINE 3 has always been contemplated for an R-rating. So this isn't really a sudden effect of DEADPOOL being a huge hit as an R-rated movie, but Fox could have also seen the writing on the wall while DEADPOOL was in post-production the past few months. During post-production for DEADPOOL, WOLVERINE 3 has been in development and being written so the studio may have instructed both a PG-13 and an R version of WOLVERINE 3 to be written. WOLVERINE 3 should be considered for an R-rating because an unrated version of THE WOLVERINE was released on Blu Ray which probably would've received an R from the MPAA due to all the blood in the film's third act. Because of this, there should have never been any doubt that WOLVERINE 3 could have trended for an R-rating.
Yet, this pamphlet is still kind of a mystery because Fox did not have a Toy Fair 2016 booth, nor did they have any presentation as some sites claim they had during last weekend. At least they didn't to the knowledge of The Daily SuperHero, who was there and saw every square inch of that show floor.
Way back when the X-Men movie franchise was being launched by Fox, many fans hated the thought of Wolverine being in a PG-13 movie and complained about it way back then. Funny how things have changed now, also thanks to DEADPOOL, and an R-rated Wolverine movie could be closer to becoming a reality than ever before.
WOLVERINE 3 will be directed by James Mangold and is projected to begin production this spring for its March 3, 2017 release date.
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