Stephen King has recently criticized superhero movies, but his criticism highlights what made one of the MCU’s most recent movies, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine, so successful. King’s comments add to a chorus of opinions about the genre, with movie-makers and aficionados alike weighing in on whether superhero movies are deserving of respect.

MCU productions typically prompt such opinions, given the cinematic franchise is so inordinately successful. Even with the MCU flagging recently, with the combined box office of three movies in 2025 failing to clear the financial bar set by ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine alone, the $508 million grossed by The Fantastic Four: First Steps is still nothing to sniff at.

Their success speaks to the popularity of the genre in general, but the fact that they are so accessible still plays a huge role. Most MCU productions are rated PG-13, with the one cinematic outlier being ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine — the MCU’s first R-rated movie.

To achieve the typical PG-13 age rating, MCU filmmakers must adhere to specific rules that may conflict with one of the genre’s most defining features: violence. This is where Stephen King takes issue, but ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine was never so constrained.

Stephen King’s Superhero Movie Comments Underline A Reason ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine Was So Successful

Stephen King spoke about the superhero genre in a recent interview with The Times while discussing the adaptations of one of his works, The Long Walk. When talking about the amount of violence seen in this movie, King compares it to the more toned-down violence typically seen in superhero movies, stating:

“If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood. And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic… I said [for ‘The Long Walk’], if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”

The depiction of blood in movies is often a deal-breaker for age ratings. This is why some of the MCU’s most violent characters, like Hela (the Goddess of Death), can slaughter hundreds without them shedding so much as a drop of blood. King seems to take onus with this, as it essentially sugarcoats the violence when it should be brutal.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine, however, makes no such attempt. In keeping with ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool’s established MO, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine is home to the vast majority of the MCU’s most gory and wantonly violent scenes, from Johnny Storm being skinned alive to ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool and Wolverine flooding the streets with the blood of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool Corps.

With that in mind, it is no real surprise that ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine made as much money as it did. The movie delivered something entirely unique to the MCU, albeit in a pretty shocking fashion. Despite shutting out younger swathes of audiences, it spoke to a need that the MCU could stand to replicate.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine’s Success Highlights What The MCU Needs

Regardless of whether Stephen King has a point regarding violence, his comments at least highlight one of the MCU’s most glaring issues in that it can often feel repeтιтive. Most of the MCU’s most prolific criticisms follow this throughline, although its brand of humor and predictable narratives are also targets.

It isn’t as if every MCU movie should replicate ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s violence, but they should at least strive to deliver some more variety to the franchise. Thunderbolts* is a clear example of how striking a different tone can earn widespread acclaim, although the team-up movie admittedly fared far worse than it should have at the global box office.

The violence wasn’t the only thing that made ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine so successful, however, as it also spotlighted two of Marvel’s most popular characters. As the MCU struggles to replicate this success in 2025, it highlights how striking a new tone with popular characters might be a recipe for success in future MCU installments.