A new THR report has Mahershala Ali “increasingly frustrated” by all of the “Blade” delays. Apparently, Marvel is waiting for the script to be written before they hire a new director to replace Yann Demange.
Last week, Demange was the second director to leave the project, after Bassem Tariq in September 2022. THR cites the delays as the main reason why he departed the project.
The THR report paints Ali as very much controlling the way “Blade” conducts its creative decisions. Ali was the guy who convinced Marvel that Tariq wasn’t a good fit and he also brought in his “True Detective” creator, Nic Pizzolatto, into the mix which ended with the scribe being let go.
Ali is reported to have said that he sees this ‘Blade’ reboot as his “Black Panther,” and that’s part of the reason why he’s stayed on. Given the tumultuous journey of the whole thing, maybe it’ll be his “Captain Marvel” instead.
The story has also changed, at least, three times. It was originally set to take place in the 1920s with Mia Goth playing Lilith, a vampire who wanted the blood of Blade’s daughter. Another iteration, under Tariq, had Marvel building a massive train set, but it was never used. The current script being written is said to take place in the present day.
It all sounds like messy chaos, which is what we expected given the constant delays we’ve been hearing about this film, which was greenlit in 2019. It’s come to the point where Wesley Snipes, who originally starred as Blade in the ‘90s, has been openly mocking the film on his social media.
Apparently, Goth is still part of the project, which means Lilith is still a character in the present-day script. However, Delroy Lindo, following in the footsteps of his former co-star Aaron Pierre, has officially dropped out of “Blade.”
There is no word on how much all of these delays have cost Marvel. For now, the cast still includes Ali, and Goth. Nobody else that we know of has been added. Expect its 2025 release date to get delayed very soon.