When Marvel Studios surprisingly released a four minute trailer of all their Phase 4 films early last week, fans were wondering why Mahershala Ali‘s Blade reboot wasn’t included as well.
If you read The Hollywood Reporter‘s article about Warner Bros. developing a black Superman film, then you also caught the information regarding what’s going on with the infamous vampire hunter.
Blade was initially supposed to start filming this September, but has been pushed back to July 2022 so that they can spend more time on the Staci Osei- Kuffour (HBO’s Watchmen) script.
The reason Blade was mentioned in the article is because both Marvel and Warner Bros. are looking for black directors to helm both films.
Since the superhero cinematic universe refuses to give Blade it’s flowers, I’ll take this moment to refresh your memory.
When Blade was released in 1998, it became part of the wave of films that helped jumpstart the new superhero boom alongside X-Men and Spider-Man. Stephen Norrington directed the first film, Guillermo del Toro helmed Blade II, and David S. Goyer, who wrote the first two Blade movies, jumped behind the camera on Blade: Trinity with Wesley Snipes starring as the Daywalker in all three films.
The first Blade film also included bullet time before John Gaeta perfected the visual a year later in The Matrix.
Blade’s superpower is that because his mother was bitten by vampire when he was in the womb, he has the strengths of a vampire but also has the ability to walk in the daylight. Or as Stephen Dorff puts it in Blade, “All of our strengths, none of our weaknesses.”
While Blade is one of my all-time favorite vampire hunters, and I love what Wesley Snipes brought to the iconic character, I’m curious to see what Mahershala’s take will be.
If we can get a great film out of the Blade franchise once again (I refuse to acknowledge Trinity), take all the time you need on structuring a great script.
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