Yann Demange is the latest director to depart from Marvel’s Blade. It’s another blow for the studio’s vampire comic book reboot.
Reports have surfaced this morning stating that Yann Demange has vacated the director’s chair on Blade. The troubled history of Marvel’s attempt to bring the popular half-vampire back to the screen after a decades-long absence is well documented, and Blade might just stand as the studio’s most problematic production in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The parting is said to have been amicable, although naturally no reason has been offered to explain the ’71 director’s exit, not even the oft-trotted out ‘creative differences’. Ironically, it could well be creative differences this time.
It’s previously been reported that the film is going through another significant rewrite. Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury and Beau DeMayo have all submitted scripts in the past which didn’t meet the approval of Kevin Feige, Marvel’s chief. True Detective creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto also made a pass at it, which wasn’t deemed good enough. Now Marvel veteran Eric Pearson is said to be drafting yet another take.
While it may be that Demange isn’t enamoured with the direction the new script is taking, it might be that he simply doesn’t want to wait for a film that seems to be struggling to get past the scripting stage. It’s not unlikely that Blade could be facing yet another delay. The project was originally set to enter production in autumn of 2022 before the exit of the film’s first director, Bassam Tariq. Then Blade faced further delays last year amid the writers’ strike.
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It’s currently slated for release in November of next year, but with the film having now lost its second director and no firm confirmation that a script is in place, it’s not unreasonable to begin looking at that date and wondering just how achievable it is.
The report over at Deadline states that the project’s star, Mahershala Ali, is still on board but we’ve heard speculation in the past that claimed he was ready to exit the project due to his frustration with the slow pace of things. Whether there’s any truth to that would just be further speculation, but Blade could certainly do with some good news right now.
If there’s a bright side, it’s that the studio is looking to slow down its releases, so perhaps the reduction in films and TV shows means that Blade will have an extended timeline in which to come together. With the MCU being so narratively interconnected, it’s hard to assess just how crucial the release timings are for these films, but with rumours swirling that Marvel might be pushing its (already delayed) Avengers 5 back even further, we could be set for a major Marvel date reshuffle at some point.
We’ll let you know more on this one as we hear it.
