Getty Image
Blade, a story about a vampire slayer, has found itself in production hell over at Marvel Studios in recent years, as it has now gone through five writers, two directors, and one shutdown six weeks before production.
Things have gotten so dire with the project, in fact, that Marvel has had to convince two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali to remain attached to the project.
It’s certainly not difficult to blame Ali for considering walking away from the film, as a new report from Variety has revealed that at one stage the script “morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons” that relegated Blade to FOURTH lead.
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.
Speculation around town is that the studio is looking to make the film, now slated for 2025, on a budget of less than $100 million — a deviation from Marvel’s big-spending strategy. [via Variety]
The news about Blade isn’t the only bombshell in this recent report about the MCU as it’s also been revealed that Marvel Studios is considering drastic moves such as pivoting away from Kang the Conqueror and reviving characters such as Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.
The next MCU film set to be released is The Marvels, which will be hitting movie theaters in the United States on November 10.
Made for a reported $250 million, reports indicate that Marvel is currently bracing for the film to be another letdown, as it’s tracking to make just $75M domestically during its opening weekend, which is about $100 million less than the Doctor Strange sequel made in the spring of 2022.
Marvel is also currently in the midst of airing the second season of the Disney+ series Loki, which will conclude next week on November 9.