Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot is Not Happening: “Dead”

I’ve always seen Jeff Sneider as a very well-sourced former trades reporter who has gone rogue, with no filter and no fear — and I mean all of that as a compliment. Rarely do you find an entertainment journalist like that these days.

So when Sneider says that Marvel’s Blade movie is “dead,” as he declared yesterday on John Rocha’s The Hot Mic podcast, you take his word for it. After years of delays, Blade is not happening.

“He [Blade] will not be introduced in a solo movie,” Sneider said on The Hot Mic. “He’ll be introduced in Midnight Sons.”

The ‘Midnight Sons’ movie, a supernatural, occult-focused superhero team, has been rumored and discussed for years, but it still hasn’t been officially confirmed by Marvel Studios. There’s no official cast, director, or release date announced yet. The key characters would be: Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, Elsa Bloodstone, and Blade.

So there you have it: “Blade,” the long-gestating, frequently rewritten, possibly cursed MCU reboot, is no longer alive. Since the project was first announced at Comic-Con 2019, delays have piled up — COVID, the WGA and SAG strikes, multiple rewrites, casting changes, and director exits. Aaron Pierre and Delroy Lindo both left the film. Mia Goth and Mahershala Ali were still attached.

This project has gone through too many drafts and too many directors, with the most recent red flag being that costume designer Ruth E. Carter’s period wardrobe for “Blade” had been repurposed for Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”

The film cycled through no fewer than six writers (Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo, Nic Pizzolatto, and now Eric Pearson) and at least three directors — Bassam Tariq, Yann Demange, and Cary Fukunaga (the last of whom never officially signed on but was in talks before reportedly walking away over creative control concerns).

Meanwhile, reports had indicated that Mahershala Ali — the Oscar-winning star the entire project was built around — was “increasingly frustrated” with the lack of forward motion. Now that “Blade” is seemingly over, he can move on to other things.