As soon as upon time within the distant 12 months of 2019, Marvel Studios held a fairly momentous Corridor H panel at San Diego Comedian-Con. With Avengers: Endgame within the rearview mirror and Spider-Man: Far From Home presently raking in money on the field workplace, everybody was questioning what was coming next for the MCU. The Section 4 slate appeared bountiful on the time: Shang-Chi and the Eternals have been getting motion pictures, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster was primed to return because the Mighty Thor in Thor: Love & Thunder, and supporting characters like Sam Wilson’s Captain America and Scarlet Witch could be getting their very own Disney+ exhibits.
As if all that weren’t sufficient, Kevin Feige introduced that Mahershala Ali—beforehand Cottonmouth in Luke Cage and having then gained an Oscar for Inexperienced E book—could be taking part in Blade, the vampire hunter famously performed in live-action by Wesley Snipes through the 2000s. It’d later be revealed this Blade flick could be hitting on November 3, 2023, with These Birds Stroll director Bassam Tariq on the helm and dealing off a script from Watchmen author Stacy Osei-Kuffor. And with Ali already having made a voice cameo in Eternals’ post-credits scene, it appeared prefer it was excessive time for the character to point out up within the MCU.
As a substitute, issues have gotten pretty sophisticated, and Blade has ended up being one of many MCU’s most weirdly cursed productions. Tariq departed the project in 2022 (resulting from each schedule conflicts and alleged inventive variations), inflicting the movie’s manufacturing to be paused. Directing duties later went to Yann Demarge (Lovecraft Nation), this time utilizing a rewritten script from The Witcher’s Beau DeMayo. True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was introduced on for rewrites this previous April, and manufacturing (for a movie now coming in September 2024) was floor to a halt the next week resulting from the WGA strike alongside numerous different Hollywood productions, together with fellow MCU movies Thunderbolts and Deadpool 3.
Extra just lately, a Variety report from earlier within the week outlining the MCU’s troubled 2020s claimed Ali was trying to bow out of the undertaking over script points. (One such declare was that Blade was basically a fourth lead in his personal film; then-scribe Michael Starburry later mentioned that concept wasn’t current in his one-page rewrite for the movie.) Michael Inexperienced of Blade Runner 2049 fame (and extra just lately Blue Eye Samurai) has reportedly now been introduced on to put in writing the movie—it’s unclear if he’s working wholly anew or working off of the variations of earlier writers’ scripts. What’s extra, Marvel is reportedly trying to give the movie a modest funds of lower than $100 million, undoubtedly a far cry from the $200 million it usually spends on its movies. At time of writing, the one factor that hasn’t modified about Blade is its casting: Ali continues to be connected, together with Pearl’s Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre (Brother), and Delroy Lindo (Crooklyn).
We doubtless gained’t have specifics on what’s been happening with Blade; not less than, not till a bigger outlet offers the entire scoop a handful of weeks earlier than the film’s launch. Nonetheless, it’s fascinatingly messy to see a film starring one of the easy B-listers Marvel has—a man whose complete deal is simply sporting black leather-based whereas stabbing vampires within the face—have a lot baggage connected to it. Possibly at this level, he would’ve been higher served with one other TV present?
Marvel’s Blade is presently slated to launch on September 6, 2024.
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