By Five years after Oscar winner Mahershala Ali was officially announced as starring in Marvel Studios’ “Blade,” the vampire thriller remains stuck in limbo.
Most recently, the news came that the film had lost its second director, Yann Demange who was handpicked by Ali and had been attached since late 2022.
Now, a new feature report at THR has examined the film’s long development process and the various issues that have arisen because of it.
According to the trade, everyone has grown increasingly frustrated by the delays. This is especially true of Ali who seems to be sticking by the project because he has “exercised an inordinate amount of influence over the project, in a way few other actors have on Marvel movies”.
Part of the reason much of the cast like Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre have exited is due to the delays, with one agent saying: “people have missed about three windows to shoot other movies or shows” – thus being with the project was costing them work.
Writers are also coming and going with Nic Pizzolatto hired in May last year, Michael Green coming onboard in November, and then Eric Pearson jumping on after DeMange left.
Part of the reason, beyond obvious causes like the pandemic early on and the strikes more recently, is that the film was also a victim of Marvel’s pivot to streaming and subsequent backpedalling and slowing down of its production slate.
That’s partly why the story of the film has shifted. The version that was to shoot last year was set in the 1920s and had Mia Goth as a vampire villain named Lilith who wanted the blood of Blade’s daughter.
An earlier version under the film’s first director saw a major train set built for the film but never used. Either way, the current incarnation of the project is said to be set in the present day.
Marvel has no plans to rush into production, despite the money spent so far (how much is not known). For now, the plan is for Pearson to work on the script over the Summer before a new director is hired.
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