It seems that not only sunshine, holy water, and wooden stakes can stop a vampire. Marvel’s upcoming Blade reboot, starring Mahershala Ali, has officially been delayed and movie production is on pause. The MCU Blade movie was originally scheduled to release on November 3, 2023, but it has been delayed nearly a year to September 6, 2024.
The delay isn’t much of a surprise after reports that the film’s director, Bassim Tariq, left the movie as scheduling issues began to crop up. The movie has struggled to get going as the screenplay has been worked on, pushing back the film’s production further and further until Disney clearly needed to shift things around. A nearly full-year delay, however, shows just how much work still needs to be done and also just how delicate the studio’s scheduling is. Once one film gets delayed, the entire MCU has to be considered when rescheduling it. That, of course, has happened with Disney announcing a slew of reschedulings for the MCU, even for films that just received release dates.
When Blade was first announced, it was a major surprise from the family-friendly MCU. The vampire anti-hero featured in one of the first successful comic book movie heroes, but bringing him and his violence over into the MCU didn’t seem that likely. However, Ali personally petitioned to play the role, and Marvel decided they could do it. Things seem to be a bit tougher than they thought, however. There is no word yet on who Marvel is considering to direct Blade now, but movie production is hoping to end the pause and start up in early 2023. Ali is still attached, though with how in demand he is, more delays could affect that as well.
