MCU boss Kevin Feige has offered a few thoughts on the state of Marvel Studio’s troubled production, Blade.
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has suffered a rocky few years, there’s definitely signs of life for the future.
Deadpool & Wolverine releases this week and could well do the kind of box office numbers of old, while a movie based on The Fantastic Four, one of the studio’s best-known properties is shooting this summer.
The company has also finally cleared up its disagreement with Sony about the creative direction for Spider-Man, and given how well fans have responded to Marvel’s take on that character, hopefully that signals another successful entry is on the way. A script is due to land on Kevin Feige’s desk in the near future.
However, despite all of the above suggesting that things are on the up for Marvel Studios, one project that has been giving MCU boss Kevin Feige plenty of pause for thought is Blade.
The project has been stuck in what can only be described as development hell for some time now, burning through lots of writers and a couple of directors at this point.
The film’s stars, Mahershala Ali and Mia Goth have used various means to publicly express their frustrations with the hold-up at Marvel, with both actors reportedly missing out on other projects due to Marvel setting (then abandoning) three production windows.
Kevin Feige has talked a little about the mess, telling BlackTree TV, “I mean, for the last two years 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.”
Fair enough, but given the scale of the delays and the departure of two directors (Yann Demange left the film last month, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Bassam Tariq, who bowed out in September 2022) you have to wonder if Marvel’s recent troubles haven’t left its high-ups feeling a little gun-shy when it comes to giving that green light.
Feige did at least seem to confirm that whatever version of Blade makes it into production, it will be R-rated, saying “there were some great Blade movies years ago – they were all rated-R. So I think that’s, like Deadpool, inherent with the character of Blade.”
So there’s that at least.
Still, when you’ve got actors of the calibre of Ali and Goth lined up for the film and Marvel’s inaction is potentially hurting their career and bank balance, Feige must have had to use some pretty impressive diplomacy skills. Given that Ali signed up for the project in 2019, we wonder just how long Marvel can hold him for. We’d expect to hear news of a new production date and director pretty soon but at this point, who knows?
