Blade Reboot Delayed Yet Again

Movies

Alex Gherzo | Oct 23, 2024 |

The Daywalker seems doomed at this point. According to Deadline, Disney has removed the Blade reboot from its 2025 release schedule, with its November 7 release date now going to Predator: Badlands, which is the next attempt to diminish Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 triumph over the intergalactic hunter. (“Oh, you went through hell, lost all your friends, but finally defeated the invincible monster? Big deal, women have been doing that for centuries!”) Blade has had a bumpy ride since it was announced in 2019, with an ever-shifting release date, a revolving door of writers and directors, and the rumored frustration of star Mahershala Ali, who is set to play the half-man, half-vampire superhero this time. Marvel hasn’t commented on the loss of yet another release date for Blade, although Deadline has a quote from Mia Goth, who is supposed to play the film’s villain, Lilith: “They want to make a great movie. That’s the sense that I get from them and that feels good.”

Sure they do. That’s why there was a version several drafts ago where Blade played fifth wheel to his daughter and her friends. Marvel backpedaled on that after several big failures and the audience’s rejection of their stupid All-New, All-Different approach to the MCU after (and even during) Avengers: Endgame. They finally got the memo that nobody likes that, so they jettisoned the “What if Blade’s daughter was the real hero all along?” hook and tried to make an actual Blade movie – as in, one that’s about Blade. With news of Marvel’s supposed pivot from identity politics courtesy of Chris Gore, it’s possible Blade is one of the first dominoes to fall. Perhaps the new scripts weren’t a whole lot better than The Sorority Sisters and Their Wacky Sidekick Blade, so Marvel is truly revamping the film to deliver an actual crowd-pleaser.

Of course, if they really want to please the crowds, Marvel will give them what they’ve been saying they wanted from the beginning: Wesley Snipes. Snipes played Blade in the original film series, and he remains beloved by fans for his excellent performance, portraying Blade as a stoic and ruthless vampire killer who wasn’t above delivering an action hero one-liner as he was slicing and dicing. Snipes is 62 years old, but he still looks fit and perfectly capable of throwing on the coat and wielding the katana. In fact, he proved as much in this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, where he returned to the role in an extended cameo and reminded us of how much we love seeing him as Blade. The hunger for more of Snipes’ Blade is at an all-time high, spurred on by Ryan Reynolds – who has been forgiven for his hand in sinking Blade 3 – championing Snipes’ return for another Blade movie in an X post.

There is no Fox Marvel Universe or MCU without Blade first creating a market. He’s Marvel Daddy. Please retweet for a Logan-like send off. #DeadpoolAndWolverine pic.twitter.com/wGv2ixBT8G
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 5, 2024

And if the Blade reboot remains stuck in development hell, Marvel may have no choice but to go back to Snipes. Mahershala Ali has been waiting five years to start filming this movie, only to see it fall apart again and again. He’s a two-time Oscar winner that audiences like and respect; he’s almost certainly got plenty of offers on the table. In fact, he took one this summer, starring alongside Scarlett Johansson in the next Jurassic Park movie, Jurassic World Rebirth. At the time, I and others thought this was a sign that he had finally had enough of waiting for Blade to come together, but Jurassic World Rebirth has already wrapped filming, so he could still make a Blade movie at some point. (How embarrassing is it for Marvel that Ali was able to make a whole other movie while signed on for Blade – and not just a small drama but a blockbuster Jurassic Park movie?) But does he still want to? What happens when he gets another big offer, but Marvel insists Blade is finally going to be made this time? He may cash in his chips and leave, and nobody would blame him. In fact, if that leads to another overhaul that sees Wesley Snipes return, it may work out best for everyone.