The Blade reboot would be dead and buried
Instead, the character could return in a collective film entitled Midnight Sons, with the other most mystical figures of the franchise: Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange…
He made his first animated appearance in the MCU. Mahershala Ali was Blade In Marvel Zombieslast year on Disney Plus. And it seemed to augur the beginning of something, like a first stone for a building so complicated to build. But in the end, it was just a stone in the sand…
According to the American press, the reboot of Blade at Marvel is dead. Definitely.
The information is not at all official (yet), but comes from the always very well-informed Jeff Sneider, a Hollywood journalist without tongue in cheek, who dropped the bomb in the podcast The Hot Mic.
“Blade will not be introduced in a solo film. He will be in Midnight Sons”says Sneider.
In other words: exit the dedicated feature film, make way for a collective appearance – if indeed the project Midnight Sounds really exists one day. The Sons of Midnight (“Midnight Sons” in English) are a team of superheroes operating in the Marvel universe and appearing for the first time in 1992. An ensemble film with supernatural overtones, mentioned for years without ever really being confirmed by Marvel Studios, would thus have the ambition to bring together the most mystical figures of the franchise: Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, Elsa Bloodstone… and Blade.
No director announced, no date. For now, it’s mostly a phantom concept.
The observation is brutal but logical. Announced with great fanfare at Comic-Con 2019, the famous film Blade has quickly become one of the most chaotic projects in recent MCU history. Repeated delays, COVID, WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, incessant rewrites, director departures, unstable casting. Aaron Pierre and Delroy Lindo have jumped ship. Mia Goth and Mahershala Ali were still attached…until further notice.
Ultimate symbol of shipwreck: the period costumes designed by Ruth E. Carter for Blade ended up recycled on Sinners by Ryan Coogler. Difficult to make a clearer warning signal.
The film featured six screenwriters – Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo, Nic Pizzolatto, Eric Pearson – and at least three directors: Bassam Tariq, Yann Demange, without forgetting Cary Fukunaga, for a time in discussions before withdrawing, officially for creative disagreements.
Meanwhile, Mahershala Ali, two-time Oscar winner and cornerstone of the project, said he was increasingly frustrated by the total lack of concrete progress. We understand it.
After years of aborted development, contradictory versions and postponed decisions, Blade joins the long list of Marvel films announced too soon, thought about too long, and killed by their own inertia.
The vampire hunter may be immortal on screen. But this reboot never recovered.
