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In 2019, Marvel Studios announced that Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala ali would be starring in the franchise’s Blade movie, which it began developing as far back as 2013. We are now halfway through 2025 and the film is no closer to being released than when it was first announced — in fact, it may be even further away, as Disney removed it from its release schedule last Fall.
The development of Blade at Marvel Studios has been nothing short of a disaster, as multiple writers and directors have boarded and subsequently bailed on the project in recent years. Plus, Ali is now 51 years old, leaving Marvel Cinematic Universe fans to wonder if he’ll ever suit up as the character at all.
Marvel began a search for writers in 2020 before hiring Stacy Ose-Kuffour in February 2021. That September, Bassam Tariq was confirmed to be the project’s director. In September 2022, however, Tariq stepped down as director, with reports indicating that X-Men ’97 scribe Beau DeMayo penned the most recent draft of the script.
The following month, Yann Demange was the latest director to be attached alongside writer Michael Starrbury. Another six-ish months later, reports indicated True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto had taken a crack at the script. Fast forward to November 2023, Logan and Blade Runner 2049 author Michael Green was tapped as writer.
June 2024: Eric Pearson, the co-writer of Thor: Ragnarok, Thunderbolts, and Fantastic Four: First Steps was reportedly taking a stab at it (pun intended). Then, last October, the project was removed from Marvel’s release schedule and development on the project ceased this March.
This inability to crack the character is baffling to oscreenwriter David S. Goyer, whose credits include all three Blade films, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (story credit, not screenwriter credit), and Man of Steel.
“In my mind, I think Blade is a relatively simple story. It’s not complicated. And I always think when you embark on a movie like this, you have to distill down what is the promise of the movie,” Goyer said during his Monday appearance on Happy Sad Confused.
“It should have insane ass-kicking. It should be pretty scary. Might be R rated. And it doesn’t have to be, it should not be complicated. It should be a simple story. So I don’t know why it’s been so hard. I have no idea why. I’m baffled. I’ve sat on the sidelines and Mahershala Ali is an amazing actor. I don’t know why.”
The sentiment shared by Goyer — who, although an imperfect screenwriter, is certainly in a position to have an important opinion — seems to be those of movie fans at large, who simply cannot wrap their heads around the notion of taking so long to make a compelling story about two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali playing a vampire ninja.