Spider-Man's First R-Rated Movie Is The Closest It Has Ever Been

1 week ago 17

Published Mar 3, 2026, 9:43 AM EST

Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

A Spider-Man update sets up the perfect path forward for a major change to the Marvel hero's movies and series, leaving the door ajar for his first R-rated film to walk through. All Spider-Man movies have received a PG-13 rating so far, which makes sense. After all, that is the standard rating for a superhero movie. Additionally, Spider-Man does not necessarily need an R rating.

Why Spider-Man's First R-Rated Movie Is Closer Now

Recently, it was confirmed that Spider-Noir, Prime Video's upcoming Spider-Man Noir live-action series that sees Nicolas Cage reprise the role he voices in the animated Spider-Verse movies, has received a TV-14 rating. That suggests the superhero series will have a level of maturity that exceeds that of the Spider-Man movies and the wall-crawler's TV shows released so far.

It makes sense for the project, as Cage's Ben Reilly is an aging superhero past his prime, investigating a noir-styled mystery with multiple dangerous villains. Spider-Noir also features The Punisher showrunner Steve Lightfoot as one of its co-creators. By putting together all of those elements, fans can expect a more mature Spider-Man series that is not afraid of getting violent and dark.

Two Upcoming Spider-Man Movies Could End Up With An R Rating

Venom symbiote with a big smile on his face in The Last Dance

Spider-Noir's historical feat with its TV-14 rating could be the first step towards the release of an R-rated Spider-Man movie. No, fans should not expect to see Tom Holland's Spider-Man get bloody in a violent live-action MCU movie. After all, Peter Parker has no real need for an R rating, as he is the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

However, other versions of the hero from the multiverse, or a villain who uses Spider-Man's symbol on his chest, could do with an R rating in future movies. There are three animated Spider-Man-related movies in development at Sony, which will focus on Gwen Stacy as Ghost-Spider, Spider-Punk, and Venom. The last two could work with an R rating after Spider-Noir broke the mold.

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse showed how Spider-Punk is not your conventional Marvel hero, and that could lend itself well to a gritty crime story in an R-rated film. That said, Marvel fans were unhappy with Tom Hardy's Venom movies being PG-13.

It surely hindered the level of action, and with Hardy involved in some form with the animated Venom movie, it receiving an R rating would fix that Spider-Man spinoff complaint. Additionally, Venom has always been one of the hero's most violent and darkest foes. Add in some possible body horror elements with the symbiote, and the animated Venom movie could be the R-rated Spider-Man flick fans have been asking for.