Deadpool Wasn’t the Only One Ready to Risk an R-Rating Release

Deadpool pretty much solidified the notion that being rude instead of too righteous can also be the way of a superhero (or anti-hero, depending on how you look at the Merc with the Mouth).

While the R-rating was just one of the things that made some people raise an eyebrow and others go straight to the cinemas, it wasn't the only superhero movie that wanted to tap that side of storytelling.

As it turns out, Logan director James Mangold told Comicbook.com that he had already been considering Logan as an R-rated film even before Deadpool garnered success in that arena.

"We were already down the road of R before Deadpool had been released. I think that they did know, the studio, they felt that they had a real success even though it hadn't been released yet that they had something people would be really excited to see. But, I think, you have to give all the studios credit, but particularly Fox, in the sense that they were aware, acutely aware, that these bloated $200 million are quite creating the sensation they were five or six years ago and you get into a kind of arms race with spending more, casting more, louder, faster, more..."

He also shared that, if he were given a chance to direct movies similar to these, he would probably do a similar treatment of gritty and R-rated. Mangold envisioned it as taking out characters from their respective universes and potentially putting them in darker and more grounded settings similar to Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted.

If I were to take another stab at my ever-beloved franchise, perhaps this is what DC was trying to do with the dark approach that it started with its early films. In a way, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy dabbled in that particular area of gritty and down-to-earth-and-deeper treatment with criminal alleyways and fear gas instead of downright spectacular powers. It just succeeded without having to get into R-rating territory.

Whatever the case may be, Logan looks like it's headed in the right direction—and the one that's fitting as an end to the character that Hugh Jackman has portrayed for almost two decades.

Logan will be out in theaters on March 3.

Read:Someone has been cast for a small role in GotG Vol. 2.

Jason Momoa is ready for some sword-fighting.