At last there is good news for Blade fans as Marvel’s delayed project seems to be heading once more towards production.
We’ve known for a while now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe take on Blade isn’t going to be arriving next November as planned. With news emerging last month that director Bassam Tariq had ‘stepped away’ from the production, a delay to filming became essential whilst Marvel Studios began the search for a new director.
Now the hunt appears to be over following the news that Yann Demange has been selected to helm the Mahershala Ali-led project, with The Hollywood Reporter suggesting that ‘the new intent is to make the film dark and gritty.’
This will likely please MCU fans on several fronts. Firstly, Demange is the helmer of films such as the excellent action thriller, ’71 and the Matthew McConaughey-led White Boy Rick. With ’71 he proved himself more than capable of crafting a gritty, uncompromising and thrilling story and we’re keen to see what he might bring to the world of Blade. Secondly, the apparent desire on behalf of Marvel Studios to go ‘dark and gritty’ will no doubt be pleasing to vans of the vampire slayer, especially since complaints have been rife that MCU films have become too tonally light of late.
Progress on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Blade film has been pretty uneven ever since Kevin Feige announced – alongside Mahershala Ali – that it would be reviving the fearsome vampire-hunter during 2019’s Comic-Con. There were some confused tweets from the company’s Indian Twitter account about release dates at one point, and news on the film was scarce, even whilst other MCU projects were getting the limelight.
Mike Starburry has reportedly been bought in to do a full rewrite of the screenplay, following Moon Knight writer Beau DeMayo and Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour previously drafting versions. Filming will now begin in Atlanta in 2023, with the revised September 6th 2024 release date still in place for now.
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