Marvel Studios Delays “Blade” Once Again
Way back at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced they would be creating a new “Blade” movie, featuring Mahershala Ali, who would be playing the role of the vampire hunter.
Since that initial announcement, we’ve seen the project go through many delays, some down to the pandemic and others down to last summer’s Hollywood strikes.
During that period, the project has seen two different directors, Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange, join and leave.
Originally, the film was supposed to be released in 2023, but last year, Marvel changed the date to November 7th 2025, but with no director and the creative team still struggling to put together a script, the project has now been removed from the upcoming slate.
Instead, Disney will now release “Predator: Badlands” on that same date. The latest installment in the 20th Century Studios franchise will star Elle Fanning and will be directed by Dan Tratechenberg, who directed the previous Predator movie, “Prey.”
Over the past year, we’ve had small nuggets of information about the film, with Kevin Feige confirming the new movie will be rated R.
“For the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it, and making sure we are making the right Blade movie. Because there were some great Blade movies years ago.”
Mia Goth, who is set to play supervillain Lilith in “Blade” revealed at the premiere of her movie, “Maxine” that Marvel “really care, they do. They want to make a great movie. That’s the sense that I get from them, and that feels good.”
Marvel has also added three untitled Marvel films to its schedule for 2028, including February 18th, May 5th and November 10th.
Roger’s Take: It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see “Blade” has been removed from the upcoming theatrical release schedule, since in order to get this film out by next November, they would already need to be underway with filming, due to all the special effects that would be needed to get it ready in time.
Marvel made a major mistake in announcing this project so early, when it wasn’t ready and with Marvel drastically cutting back how many releases per year it makes, the likelihood of “Blade” hitting cinemas anytime soon was getting smaller by the day, especially with “Fantastic Four” currently in production for next summer and work set to begin soon on the upcoming “Avengers” films.
It’s also a good idea for Disney just to leave the date unannounced, and when they are in a better position, should the project be still happening, then announce it once filming has actually commenced.
What do you think of Marvel Studios delaying “Blade” again? Let me know on social media!