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While the excitement was palpable for Marvel Studios' Blade in 2019, that excitement has since faded as the Mahershala Ali-led film has struggled to get production off the ground for a variety of reasons. Things appeared to finally be taking shape in early 2024, but according to a new report, development may once again be right back where it started.
Concerns about Blade's status started to emerge when it was said Ali was in talks with Universal Pictures next Jurassic World film, which was reportedly targeting a June 2024 start date for production. Following these reports, insiders including John Campea and Heroic Hollywood said they had been told development of Blade was allegedly back to “square one” because “key players” in film were once again unhappy with the script, according to ComicBookMovie.
“Blade's production has completely restarted,” Campea said on his YouTube show.
These claims follow, what had been, the most promising updates for Blade's production in the years since its 2019 Hall-H announcement. Ali, himself, appeared to express his excitement about the film's status and the latest script in a December 2023 interview with EW.
“I’m sincerely encouraged in terms of where things are at and who’s on board and who’s leading the way as far as the writing of the script and the directing and all that,” Ali said at the time. “So that’s the extent of what I can tell you.”
Following this interview, ProductionWeekly reported in March that Blade was targeting a production start window of Fall 2024, though an exact date was not provided.
While there has been no official comment from Marvel Studios about the claims Blade is at “square one” again, it would not be hard for fans to believe it given the film's already rocky history.
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The script has reportedly been at the center of Blade's reported development problems, with claims that Ali has butted heads with some at Marvel Studios over various drafts of the film. In 2023, an alleged insider told Variety that one draft had Blade serving as more of a supporting role, despite being the titular character, in favor of several female characters in a narrative “filled with life lessons.”
Ali was allegedly ready to walk away from the film due to this perceived “demotion,” leading to the draft to be scrapped and rewritten entirely to place the focus back on Blade.
It is worth noting, though, that Blade, like several major productions, also faced significant production delays to various real world issues in recent years.
First was the COVID-19 Pandemic that effectively shut down the world for nearly a year from 2020 to 2021, with several major films having to halt and delay production. Marvel Studios was no exception, with several releases delayed out of 2020 and development slowed to a near crawl on various projects until things began to open up again.
More recent was the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which dominated Hollywood for most of 2023. Like COVID, the strikes led to multiple production shutdowns until new deals between the unions and studios were struck in late 2023.
Blade is scheduled to release on November 5, 2025.
