Deadpool’s record-breaking success last weekend changed the game for R-rated superhero movies. Deadpool 2 will likely retain its R-rating, but it may not be the only upcoming X-Men related movie to feature mature content.

During a recent Deadpool Q&A hosted by Collider, X-Men and Deadpool producer Simon Kinberg said, “I think there are some stories that could be R-rated. I don’t know what they are, I mean I think the mainline X-Men movies have their own tone, which is a more operatic tone. It’s more dramatic, it is more PG-13 in a way. X-Force I could see being R-rated, and who knows?” Kinberg later clarified that X-Force may be R-rated, as opposed to actually confirming that creative direction.

So, what separates X-Force from the X-Men? For starters, X-Force is run more like a paramilitary unit than a school for mutants, and the later iterations of that group were more willing to kill their enemies than the regular X-Men. Think of X-Force as a black-ops mutant team. Although Deadpool was initially introduced as an enemy of the New Mutants and X-Force, he was a member of the X-Force team that included Wolverine, Psylocke, Archangel, and Fantomex. Cable was the original leader of X-Force, and it’s no secret that he’ll be making his live-action debut in the next Deadpool movie. Once Cable and Deadpool are both in play, an X-Force movie is a logical next step.

But within the realm of Fox’s X-Men movies, there really aren’t that many characters or teams that would easily lend themselves to a hard R-rating. Wolverine has been in “mature audiences” stories before, but neither his upcoming sequel nor the future X-Men movies are likely to match Deadpool in terms of content. Nor should those films have to be something they aren’t.

That was part of the point that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn made over the weekend. Hollywood is going to assume that the R-rated content was the key factor in Deadpool’s success and imitate it as much as possible, but that’s not wholly true. Even when Deadpool was a member of X-Force, that comic never had the same tone as Deadpool’s solo adventures. As fun and as in-character as all that R-ratedness was, not everything has to be Deadpool.

Which X-Men related characters would you like to see in R-rated movies? Let us know in the comment section below!

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HT: Collider
Image Credit: Marvel Comics

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