Could this be the final stake in the heart for Blade, because word on the street is that Disney has quietly pulled the film off it's schedule, and will instead release Predator: Badlands
Blade was previously scheduled for a November 7, 2025 release date, but now Variety is reporting that the Mahershala Ali vampire film has been removed from Disney’s release schedule altogether. In its place is Predator: Badlands, the spiritual follow-up to Prey from director Dan Trachtenberg.
For Marvel Boss Kevin Feige, it’s important to make the best Blade movie ever. The studio won’t make the movie until they’ve cracked a great script. In the meantime, Snipes had a cameo as Blade in the highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.3 billion).
Meanwhile, Marvel added three untitled projects to the schedule for Feb. 18, 2028, May 5, 2028 and Nov. 10, 2028.
The comic book empire’s decision to take “Blade” off the docket was widely expected after Disney CEO Bob Iger’s stated in an earnings call on May 7 that Marvel will release “a maximum of three” movies a year. Of the four superhero films Disney previously had slated for 2025 — including “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” — “Blade” is the only project that hadn’t started production.
Director Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) also exited the film in June, further delaying the film after a litany of setbacks. “Blade” first jumped from a November 2023 to a September 2024 release after the first director on the film, Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”), departed the production in 2022. Demange stepped in as director, but following the 2023 WGA strike, Marvel suspended pre-production and pushed the movie again to November 2025. “Blade” also faced production and development setbacks during the early days of COVID. Regular Marvel scribe Eric Pearson (“The Fantastic Four,” “Thunderbolts,” “Black Widow”) has taken on screenwriting duties, following passes by Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo and Nic Pizzolatto.
Given the various headaches and roadblocks, Marvel didn’t want to move forward with a “Blade” that doesn’t live up to its predecessors, according to insiders. Feige has said as much in prior interviews, noting that “for the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it, and making sure we are making the right ‘Blade’ movie.”
At this point, while I would love to see a reboot of Blade, I don't think the MCU is the right universe for the film to exist in. I don't want my daywalker to be Disneyfied. If they can find a way to separate the Blade universe from all the other MCU movies, like they did with Deadpool and Wolverine then maybe it would work.
I also don't understand why would you announce that you're making a Blade movie, cast your lead, but then it takes you have a decade plus to try to crack the code script-wise? Beau DeMayo has given us an inside look into what he had planned for Blade before Disney said no. Then we've lost a multitude of script writers and two directors, and we still have no idea if they've been working on a new draft, or if any other director has signed on.
I'm starting to think the writers can figure out how to make vampirism work in an MCU world, especially since we have no idea where they're planning on going thematically with the next phase.
Comments