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A couple days back we got some updates on an upcoming MCU movie, Blade. It was reported that the film was delayed indefinitely. I’m honestly not too surprised, but there are some things to discuss here.
Blade’s History: If you don’t know, this is a movie that has been in development for over five years with a star. In July 2019, Mahershala Ali was announced as Blade. Kevin Feige said it would be a part of Phase 5. In those five years, the movie has had four release dates, several writers, and two directors. For whatever reason, Marvel Studios has struggled to get a Blade movie made in the MCU. Which leads to the creation of this blog post when it was reported that Blade has been delayed indefinitely. Which means it’s been delayed with no release date, and I have some thoughts on it.
My Thoughts
- My first reaction when this news was announced was I’m not surprised. After the second director left in June, I feel like most of us were waiting for the announcement that the film was canceled. Months have passed and it hasn’t been canceled, but it’s been delayed indefinitely. Either later this year or early next year, I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie gets shelved all together. Quite frankly, I’m surprised Mahershala Ali hasn’t left yet.
- When Mahershala Ali was announced as Blade, months after winning his second Oscar. He came to Marvel Studios and said “hey, I wanna make a Blade movie”, when two time Oscar winning actor Mahershala Ali says that, you try and make it happen. I think that’s part of the problem as to why this movie has been in development hell. Blade is about martial arts vampires and that can be hard to fit into the MCU. Especially when things are getting more cosmic and multiverse focused, it’s hard to know how to fit such a grounded and horror based character into a world that’s going cosmic. Marvel Studio wants to keep good will with people, they don’t wanna tell anybody no. So they’ve been trying hard to fit that into the picture. Marvel Studios is a business, they wanna have good will with everybody so they try to make everybody happy, but sometimes that can lead to projects simply not working out.
- This will kind of lead into another topic that maybe Marvel Studios should consider doing in the future, maybe Marvel Studios needs to do Elseworlds projects. Basically, it’s projects that are under the Marvel Studios banner, they’re Marvel movies but they’re separated from the MCU. James Gunn is doing this with DC. Where there’s the DCU that James Gunn is over, that’s his Superman movie, the Green Lantern tv show, and many other projects. The Elseworlds projects are films like Joker: Folie A Deux and The Batman: Part II, where Todd Phillips and Matt Reeves have full creative control over their projects; they're completely separate from the MCU with Doctor Doom. Maybe that’s what they should do with Blade, have Mahershala Ali pick a writer and director and they make a Blade movie, maybe it’s rated-R and they have full creative control. There’s been rumors about Ghost Rider and Nova getting projects, throw that in Marvel Elseworlds. Maybe we even get Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie.
Should They Cancel The Film?: This is tricky, because I love what I just pitched about doing Marvel Elseworlds. With how controlling and managing Disney can be, I don’t know if they would allow that. I don’t know if that would be a thing with how Disney is being run right now. If that wasn’t an option and they were forced to fit the Blade into the main MCU, clearly that hasn’t worked therefore they shouldn’t do it and keep on giving us hope that maybe this thing would happen. I know this was a passion project for Mahershala Ali, I wish him the best but sometimes projects aren’t meant to be. Another thing to keep in mind here, Mahershala Ali is almost 50. Wesley Snipes “stopped” being Blade when he was 42 years old. When Blade is a character known for being a martial artist, having a guy that’s pushing 50 doesn’t sound like the best idea. Also, because of his commitment to Blade and the filming start date being pushed back, he’s had to turn down other roles. He was offered the role of Jim Gordon in The Batman, but had to turn it down because of Blade. Earlier this year, he joined Jurassic World: Rebirth, when that was announced I thought this movie was dead and canceled. With this announcement, I think it’s inevitable this movie will get canceled.
Wesley Snipes’ Fourth Blade Movie?: If you haven’t kept up to date with recent Marvel movies, I’m about to spoil something big. In Deadpool & Wolverine, Wesley Snipes’ made a return as Blade, almost 20 years later. In that movie he said the line “there’s only one Blade and their every only will be on Blade”. Some people took that as a joke, others were kind of wondering if that was them poking fun at the fact that Ali’s Blade movie is dead. I took it as a joke and Ryan Reynolds’ poking fun at Blade’s development process. I also wouldn’t be surprised if maybe in the coming months we get an announcement about Wesley Snipes getting a fourth movie. At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if that announcement never happens. Ryan Reynolds posted stuff all over social media saying how he would love to see it, he said he wants to see a Logan style send-off for Snipes’ Blade.
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