Blade was Almost About a Group of Women
The many problems facing the new Blade movie include a draft that marginalized the lead character. According to a popular new article from Variety, the tumultuous Marvel film – which was originally supposed to come out this year but has been pushed back to 2025 – was going to be “led by women and filled with life lessons,” with title character Blade “relegated to the fourth lead.” While they don’t specify what his complaints were, Variety says that star Mahershala Ali was going to leave the film over “script issues” before Kevin Feige brought in Logan screenwriter Michael Green to revamp it. Marvel’s new plan is to make Blade for “less than $100 million;” good luck with that.
Remember when they sidelined Blade in Blade: Trinity to push new characters and everyone just loved it?
Think about how devastating this is for Marvel and Disney. This past weekend, the biggest thing on social media was South Park: Joining the Panderverse, which mocked Disney (and specifically Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy) for leaning into forced diversity to a ridiculous degree, with the fictional version of Kennedy ordering every movie to “put a chick in it; make her gay!” Then, a story comes out that a Disney movie was marginalizing the male title character and making women the leads. This Variety piece just validated Joining the Panderverse’s recurring joke. How do they argue against it anymore? How do they mock Gary at Nerdrotic for coining the phrase “M-She-U”? Is that not an apt description for a franchise that calls a movie Blade and makes Blade a supporting character to a group of women? What a joke. I’m actually surprised Blade hasn’t just been scrapped at this point; it’s become a punchline rather than an anticipated movie based on a well-liked character and starring an excellent actor. And after all these delays and creative restaffing, there’s no way this movie is made for under $100 million unless it stars a bunch of nobodies and has Blade running for the PTA rather than fighting vampires. I do think lower budgets are a smart move, but this one is too far along for that now. And I think it’s safe to say Mahershala Ali’s agent is currently looking for work.
