‘Deadpool’ Officially Rated R for All the Reasons You’d Expect

As promised by Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller, Deadpool is going to be much more faithful to the comics than the last time we saw the Merc With a Mouth on the big screen (the less said about that experience, the better). And to further illustrate that point, the film has officially earned an R rating, for all the reasons you might expect.

Box Office Mojo reports that the MPAA has given Deadpool an R rating for — deep breath — “strong violence and language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity.” We expected the strong violence and language, but the sexual content and graphic nudity is an added bonus…and not something you usually find in a comic book movie, unless it’s from the deranged mind of Mark Millar.

Reynolds and Miller had been talking up the probability of an R rating for some time, expressing a desire to stick as closely to the source material as possible in both tone and content. You can’t really have a Deadpool movie without profanity and buckets of violence, so the MPAA’s decision feels like a win for fans who were hoping for the most faithful version of the character.

The rating is a departure from the more conventional, family-friendly appeal of modern superhero and comic book films, where even the darker and “grittier” offerings tend to skew toward PG-13 to maximize their box office earnings. But as movies like Kingsman and Kick-Ass have proved, you can still deliver a colorful, comedic and totally profane comic book movie that’s rated R and make huge bank.

Deadpool hits theaters on February 12.