Kevin Feige has shared promising updates about the timeline and release date of Marvel Studios’ Blade during a recent interaction with the media. Conversations about a Blade movie from the MCU have been around since early 2010s.
Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali boarded the project in 2019 to play the eponymous vampire hunter. However, the project suffered multiple delays, and it was eventually taken off from the MCU’s release schedule in October 2024.
Kevin Feige reveals MCU’s Blade won’t be a period piece
Kevin Feige discussed the plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe during a recent sit-down with the media at Marvel’s Burbank HQ. Blade came up during the interaction. It was revealed that while Blade was removed from the release schedule, the movie is still very much in development, and Mahershala Ali was still associated with the project.
Feige disclosed that there were four versions of Blade being developed at one point. This included two period pieces, with one of them set in the 1930s. Ultimately, they decided to set the movie in modern times. “We landed on modern day and that’s what we’re focusing on,” Feige explained (via Deadline).
Why MCU’s Blade suffered many delays over the years
During the same conversation, Feige also elaborated why Blade encountered constant delays amidst the exit of its directors:, Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange. “We didn’t want to put a leather outfit on [Ali] and have him start killing vampires,” the executive explained.
He continued, “You can start and have a good script and make it a great script through production, but we didn’t feel confident we could do that on Blade. We didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”
Feige also made it clear that Ryan Coogler would not helm the Blade movie for Marvel following the success of Sinners and will work on Black Panthers 3 instead.
Notably, Wesley Snipes portrayed the titular character in New Line Cinema’s Blade film trilogy (1998–2004). Snipes returned to portray the character in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
At the time of this article’s composition, Marvel’s Blade doesn’t have an official release date.
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.
