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D23 has come and gone, and Disney has officially started promoting their streaming service, Disney+. Some people were wondering if the platform would feature some of the R-rated content from Fox like Alien or Deadpool, but as it turns out, there won’t be anything above PG-13 on the service.
This was confirmed by entertainment writer Eric Vespe who attended the Disney+ demo in D23. He writes:
I asked about R-rated content, if any of Fox’s more adult fare will make it on to Disney+ and he said that Disney+ will all be PG-13 or softer. I wonder if this will be their weakness that other streaming services can exploit.
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe) August 24, 2019
Vespe also followed up at the panel and asked if the R-rated content would be brought into Hulu, and he was told, “that’s a good assumption.” Nothing else was confirmed.
It should probably come as no surprise that Disney would only be featuring family-friendly content as it is what defines their brand. While this may come as a weakness for Disney+, the company still has leverage in the sense that they own Marvel Studios and Star Wars—two of the biggest box office franchises in history. I guess it will be the fans who ultimately lose because this could mean we won’t be getting any Punisher reboot or even Deadpool.
If anything, it was said that Disney was trying to find a way to work with their R-rated materials in the future. I mean, it doesn’t make sense for them to just water down franchises that are popular specifically because they go all out. Rumor has it that they were thinking of R-rated Deadpool films, that could crossover with the MCU, but whenever Deadpool is there, he’ll only act PG-13.
That’s just a rumor. Hopefully Disney finds a compromise that will allow Marvel to use all of its properties, but have some creative freedom at the same time. I mean, we already lost Spider-Man, so Disney owes it to the fans.
Disney+ officially comes out on Nov. 12.
