Deadpool Finally Arrives On Disney+

There was once a time when The Walt Disney Company (or Walt Disney Productions, as it was called then) was known for JUST family-friendly content. That ship has sailed, and it’s not a recent development either — it started about forty years ago with the introduction of Touchstone as a brand dedicated to adult-targeted films PG and above. The reality is, focusing on JUST families makes you niche, and Disney today is anything but niche.

The real point of no return, though, was the acquisition of the 20th Century Fox library. They were holding the X-Men hostage from Disney (and so Disney responded by eating them). Toward the end, Fox was marketing X-Men as different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe by taking it places Disney would not go at the time — meaning R-rated movies like Deadpool and Logan. Then those movies actually BECAME Disney properties, which begged the question: what now?

The whole appeal of Deadpool is the merc’s mouth — constantly snarky, unapologetically profane, and willing to shatter the fourth wall to pieces on a minute-by-minute basis. That wasn’t consistent with the Disney brand, but if you took these things away, you would destroy the character (or reduce him to his X-Men Origins appearance, which Deadpool already took out his vengeance on). So the question was, who would blink first: Disney or Deadpool?

Surprisingly, Disney blinked — but then again, Deadpool in his all-covering mask literally doesn’t have the ability to blink. A Deadpool 3 is in development which they claim will not be watered down, and the Merc’s two existing movies will finally land on Disney+ tomorrow, thanks to the magic of parental controls. Logan will also be there, and if you haven’t seen that one, I suggest you watch it BEFORE Deadpool 2, as that movie deliberately spoils Logan’s ending in its opening scene.