This movie is cursed.
Back in 2019, at San Diego’s ComicCon, Marvel had announced Mahershala Ali as the next Blade. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit shortly after that and the film’s development took a few steps back.
Back in April, “True Detective” creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto was tapped to pen the latest round of rewrites. This was, at least, the fourth writer to officially take on the “Blade” reboot after Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury and Beau DeMayo took a crack at the script. Would Pizzolatto be the final one? It appears not.
Another “Blade” rewrite has now been called by Marvel boss Kevin Feige, this one is said to be a total revamp of the last draft. I’m not sure what’s going on with this project, but Feige doesn’t seem too impressed by what he’s seen so far.
A few months ago, French filmmaker Yann Demange (“71,” “White Boy Rick”) was hired to replace Bassam Tariq as ‘Blade’ director. Mia Goth was also added to the cast alongside Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre.
Marvel’s “Blade” was actually supposed to shoot this past May, but, while in deep pre-production mode, it was suddenly shut down. Marvel planned to resume work on the project once the SAG-AFTRA strike concluded. They’ve done that by calling for more rewrites.
The film’s intended release date also keeps changing. Marvel’s “Blade” was originally supposed to come out in November 2023, then it got delayed to September 2024 and now the official date seems to be February 14th, 2025. Who wants to bet this one doesn’t stick either?
Guillermo del Toro set the tone for the original series with his R-rated “Blade II,” many believe that one to be the essential tackling of the vampiric hero.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.