Marvel Studios used to make it look pretty easy when it was dominating the global movie industry, but one of its biggest and most public failings has been its inability to get a newBlademovie off the ground. Recently, though, Marvel Studios bossKevin Feigeoffered a small update on the status ofBladethat should be pretty encouraging for anyone who has been eager to seeMahershala Ali(Moonlight,Jurassic World: Rebirth) finally slip on the sunglasses of the iconic day-walking vampire. It doesn’t mean the movie is anywhere close to coming out, butthere’s a better chance now thatBladewill at least be worth the wait.
It was six whole years agowhen Mahershala Ali took the stage at San Diego Comic-Conto reveal that he would be playing Blade in a new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, a return to live-action for a character who had previously been played byWesley Snipesin three Marvel-produced movies in the early 2000s. That was an exciting day, butBladehas been cursed since then:DirectorBassam Tariq(Mogul Mowgli) dropped out in 2022, replacement directorYann Damange(Lovecraft Country) dropped out in 2024, and then Marvel pulled it from its schedule entirely — which typically means that a movie is extremely dead.
Why Does the Future Look Bright for ‘Blade’?
Feige’sBladeupdatewas actually part of a little joke about how the background actors inBlack PantherdirectorRyan Coogler’sSinnerswore costumes that had originally been designed forBlade, as the movie was coincidentally going to be a period piece about vampires just likeSinnersat one point. Feige joked thatBladehad to be delayed because Marvel gave away those costumes, but, really, the studio no longer needed the costumes because Feige and Marvel Studios have now decided to setBladein the present instead. In other words, of the various different concepts that Marvel has had forBladein these six years, it has finally settled on at least a vague time period.
The reason this is important, despite being such a small update, is that it likely means Marvel is genuinely still working onBlade. It doesn’t mean cameras are rolling or anything, but the studio has at least put in enough work to know what it does and does not want to do with the movie. If it were still sitting on those costumes and debating whether or not it should be a period piece, it would mean that no real progress had been made.
Plus, the very fact that the update is small is a good sign on its own. It means that Feige isn’t overselling how far along the movie is or going back on his recent comments abouttaking things a little slower at Marvel. He’s essentially saying “we have made precisely one decision,” and the fact that he’s comfortable saying that imples that he’s confident they’ve made the right one, which is encouraging.
Will There Only Ever Be One Blade?
That being said, the most encouraging thing about Feige’s update was that he confirmed that Mahershala Ali is still attached, even after all this time. It would’ve been completely understandable for him to go on to better things that haven’t taken six years, but he’s evidently committed to this character even though his only canonical MCU appearance was a bizarre vocal-only cameo inEternalsfour years ago. It’s not likeHarry Styles’ Eros, who also made a cameo inEternals, is coming back any time soon.
There’s actually a moment inDeadpool & Wolverinewhere Snipes’ Blade, having returned alongside other has-been/never-was Marvel movie heroes (Jennifer Garner’s Elektra,Channing Tatum’s Gambit,Dafne Keen’s X-23/Laura), references this newBlademovie’s troubles by quipping that there’s only ever been one Blade and there’s only ever going to be one Blade, and it’s tough to argue with him. Snipes is undeniable in hisBladetrilogy — even if the movies aren’t all that good — and it’s still recognized as an iconic superhero movie performance. If Marvel really intends to make a newBlademovie without Snipes, it needs a similarly powerful performer at the center of it.
Mahershala Ali is such a good choice, then, that it would be basically impossible to justify this project’s existence without him. He’s generally beloved, he’s an Oscar-winner, and he has already proved he can class-up a superhero story withhis brief-yet-memorable run inMarvel’s Luke Cage. If Feige had said that Ali moved on, then Marvel really would’ve been better off leavingBladeon a shelf to gather dust forever. But if Ali still believes inBlade, why shouldn’t we?
Marvel Studios is in a period of reflection, both because Kevin Feige is openly admitting to some of its missteps and because it’s largely realigning itself behind the first family of Marvel Comics with the newFantastic Four. The studio is no longer just focusing on going bigger and bigger and expanding as much as it can, but on zeroing in on what works.Bladeseems to have now passed that test, andif it does ever happen, it won’t just be because someone wants to fill a slot on the release calendar. It’ll hopefully be because it genuinely needs to happen.
