The reality that there was going to be a Blade reboot as element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe came as a substantial surprise when the announcement was created at the San Diego Comic-Con back in July of 2019 – but all these years later, we’re nonetheless waiting on the film to make its way into production. In reality, with Bob Iger lately announcing that the studio was cutting back (even extra) on Marvel stuff, Blade’s future appears in limbo. So, here’s Everything We Know About Blade (the MCU reboot, that is).

MAHERSHALA ALI

The Blade character was previously played by Wesley Snipes in 3 function films and by Sticky Fingaz in a brief-lived tv series. This time about, he’s going to be played by Mahershala Ali, who was currently attached to the project when it was announced in 2019… and although there was no indication on the net that Ali has been interested in playing Blade, this was truly a part he had been chasing for a couple years by that point. During an interview on The Tight Rope podcast, he revealed that he had initial asked what Marvel was considering of undertaking something new with Blade on the day the Marvel / Netflix series Luke Cage (exactly where Ali played Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes) premiered, which would have been on September 30, 2016. At that time, Ali was told that Marvel was thinking about creating a new Blade Television series. He wanted to play the character, but in a film. Soon just after he won an Oscar for his overall performance in the film Green Book at the start out of 2019, he was in a position to get a meeting with Marvel Studios mastermind Kevin Feige to speak about Blade. That’s when the film deal began to come with each other.

Although some fans have been upset to hear that Wesley Snipes wouldn’t be reprising the title part in Blade, Snipes himself wasn’t bothered. Speaking to Yahoo, Snipes stated, “I’m cool with it. I don’t walk around as Blade, so I’m not attached to the character like that, you know? I feel no emotional loss. Zero. I’m happy that he’s been cast, and more than likely he’ll do a great job.” Snipes and Ali did speak about the character, with Snipes providing his successor some suggestions: make certain you are in shape, attempt not to get hurt, and get pleasure from it although it lasts.

SUPPORTING CAST

Delroy Lindo has been signed on to seem in Blade alongside Ali due to the fact November of 2021, and is apparently nonetheless attached to the project. The very same is not stated for Aaron Pierre, who was stated to have landed a hugely coveted part in the film back in February of 2022… but it appears that his character has due to the fact been dropped more than the course of the several rewrites the script has gone by means of. Mia Goth was cast in the film back in April of 2023, and rumors have been swirling that she’ll be playing the villainous character Lilith.

At the start out of 2022, the people at Murphy’s Multiverse got their hands on character descriptions that have been supposedly becoming employed as element of the casting course of action. The characters they heard about have been: “Abid”, described as a burly, South Asian character who has taken a vow of silence just after a turbulent life “Huntley”, described as a man, 40-60 and “Faiza”, a French-speaking North African female involving 20 and 40. They speculated that these characters would truly be Blade’s fellow vampire hunters, introduced in the pages of the comic book Tomb of Dracula. They suspected that “Abid” was Taj Nital, “Huntley” was Quincy Harker, and “Faiza” was Rachel van Helsing. “Taj was indeed a burly, South Asian character who was first introduced in Tomb of Dracula #3, who did not speak; however, in the comics, he didn’t speak because he had his throat ripped out by vampires, so a slight change there. Taj, along with Rachel van Helsing, the granddaughter of great vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, worked with Quincy Harker to hunt down the world’s oldest vampire threat, Dracula. Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, eventually worked with Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula, and Blade to take on the vampire nation.” But if these characters have been ever in the script, there’s a opportunity they have been written out, like the one particular Aaron Pierre was going to play.

Ali created his debut as Blade with a vocal cameo at the finish of Eternals, exactly where he interrupts the character Dane Whitman (played by Kit Harington) just before he can touch a mystical sword referred to as the Ebony Blade. In the comics, Whitman becomes the Black Knight although wielding that sword, so some fans believed he may show up as the Black Knight in Blade. However, Harington has stated that the Black Knight was under no circumstances meant to be in the film. The Ebony Blade, on the other hand, may be a diverse story…

WRITER(S)

The film was announced in July of 2019, but it wasn’t till just after we got by means of the 2020 lockdowns that a writer was hired to perform on the film. In February of 2021, we heard that Stacy Osei-Kuffour, identified for her perform on the Television shows Watchmen and PEN15, was writing the script. Since then, we’ve heard that drafts have also been written by Michael Starrbury (When They See Us), True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto (who worked with Ali on season 3 of that show), and Beau DeMayo (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf).

At one particular point, we heard that Blade would start out filming in September of 2021. Then it got pushed to July of 2022, with filming to take location in Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. There was a delay due to inventive concerns, and then it would start out filming in 2023. It was just weeks away from filming when the production had to be delayed due to the writer’s strike, followed by the actor’s strike… after the writer’s strike ended, it was announced that a new writer, Michael Green (Logan), had been hired to start out the script more than from scratch.

That’s when Variety reported on some of the issues that had been holding Blade back, which includes 5 writers, two directors, and a shutdown six weeks just before production was to star. It sounds like there have been also quite a few cooks in the kitchen: “One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead, a bizarre idea considering that the studio had two-time Oscar winner Ali on board. Amid reports that Ali was ready to exit over script issues, Feige went back to the drawing board and hired Michael Green, the Oscar-nominated writer of Logan, to start anew.” After acquiring a appear at Green’s script, Feige then passed writing duties more than to Eric Pearson, who has worked on Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four.

Starrbury took to social media to say that he under no circumstances saw a script that didn’t have Blade as the lead, but perhaps such a script did exist at some point when he wasn’t involved.

DIRECTOR(S)

As Variety talked about, the project has been by means of two directors on its way to the screen. John Wick‘s uncredited co-director David Leitch, who has gone on to make films like Deadpool 2 and Hobbs &amp Shaw, stated he would “love to” direct Blade. Chad Stahelski, who directed all of the John Wick films and was also second unit director on Captain America: Civil War, stated Blade was the one particular Marvel home that he would be actually interested in taking the helm of. But as an alternative of these knowledgeable action directors, Marvel turned to Bassam Tariq, a documentarian who created his narrative function debut with the 2020 drama Mogul Mowgli. Tariq was hired in July of 2021, but stepped away from the project in September of 2022, citing scheduling concerns. Two months later, director Yann Demange (White Boy Rick) signed on to take the helm of the film… and for a although, it looked like he was going to get it into production. Then, in June of 2024, The Wrap revealed that Demange had created an amicable departure from the project.

A current Production Weekly listing claimed the Blade reboot is aiming for a Fall 2024 production start out, but they nonetheless have to have to figure out the script and now they have to have to come across a director. There have been rumors about Marvel meeting with Jordan Peele, possibly for Blade, even although Peele has previously stated he has no interest in superhero properties. In the meantime, Mahershala Ali is busy operating on the new Jurassic World film.

RATED R

It wasn’t often a certain factor that the MCU Blade was going to be rated R like the preceding Blade films have been. But when Demange came on board as director, he got Marvel to agree to let him make an R rated film. As he told Deadline, “They gave me the R, which is so important. … We are going to have fun, because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.” We’ll see if the R rating sticks now that Demange is no longer involved.

STORY (Perhaps)

Now that Blade appears to be moving forward smoothly with Yann Demange set to direct, Michael Green writing the script, and Mahershala Ali, Delroy Lindo, and Mia Goth cast, business scooper Daniel Richtman has also shared particulars on what he hears the story is going to be. According to his Patreon report, Blade is an R-rated period piece that will inform the story of “Lilith going after Blade’s daughter’s blood to create an army of Daywalkers.” Lilith’s weapon will apparently be the Ebony Blade, which was previously featured in Eternals.

Blade has had many release dates more than the year, but as far as we know, appropriate now, it is on track to start out filming quickly, aiming for a November 7, 2025 theatrical release date. Then once again, who knows? It may perhaps come in 2026, or not at all…

And that is every little thing we know about Blade… so far…