David Goyer on Marvel Turning Down His ‘Blade’ Reboot Offer, Why ‘The Sandman’ Is Ending and Those Neil Gaiman Allegations: He ‘Wasn’t as Involved in Season 2’

David S. Goyer wrote the original Blade trilogy and, in a new interview, shares his thoughts on what Marvel Studios should be doing with the Daywalker and if he'd be down for writing the reboot.

via: Variety

“It’s so funny, about eight months ago — when, not the latest hiccup hit, but like the prior hiccup — I had so many people that would say to me, ‘Dude, would you get in there on “Blade?” Would you just get in there?,’ whether it be friends or fans or people on social media,” Goyer, who wrote the 1998 “Blade” starring Wesley Snipes, told Variety in an interview May 29, just after Goyer had said on a red carpet that Marvel should give him a call if they needed help on the project.

Turns out, Goyer had already offered his services by that point and been turned down.

“And I wasn’t even really thinking about it, but then I had my agent call Marvel and say, ‘Do you guys need any help?’ And they said, ‘We love you, but we think we’ve cracked it now, and we’re in a good place.’ And then the latest thing happened. And so no, they haven’t contacted me,” Goyer said.

Goyer doesn’t know “the behind the scenes of it” as to what’s delaying this iteration of “Blade,” but says he “might consider” writing the script if Marvel ever does call, even though he’s largely out of the superhero game these days.

“I might consider it because I love the character, and it sort of started my superhero career,” Goyer said. “Even though I’m now considered a DC guy, I started as a Marvel guy. I would consider it, it would be fun to return to that world. That being said, I’m pretty much otherwise 99% done with superheroes. I love this stuff. I watch all the movies, but I’ve just done so much in the world. But yeah, I would consider it, just for old time’s sake.”

Aside from the “Blade” trilogy, Goyer is best known for writing superhero films including “Man of Steel” (2013), the “Dark Knight” trilogy, and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016).

But right now, Goyer is busy with a full lineup of TV shows produced by his Phantom Four banner releasing this summer: Apple TV+’s “Murderbot,” which is currently airing, the first half of the upcoming second and final season of Netflix’s “The Sandman” premiering July 3, followed by the third season of his “Foundation” adaptation debuting on Apple’s streamer July 11.

Of the three projects, “The Sandman” is the most talked about at the moment because of the complicated timing of its ending, which comes amid sexual misconduct accusations leveled against author Neil Gaiman.

“[The ending] was planned more than two years ago. And we had a lot of discussions, [showrunner] Allan [Heinberg] and I, with Netflix. And obviously we love the books, but one of the concerns about some of the story arcs is that Dream isn’t in them very much,” Goyer said, referring to the main character, the titular sandman played by Tom Sturridge. “And so when we were discussing, everyone’s concern was like, are we really going to sort of deviate and do six episodes that Dream’s not in at all, except for the very end? And the other thing was even though the original comic book run, I think, was 75 issues, we just ended up burning through story faster than we thought we would, because the individual issues, a lot of them, when they were first being published, are only 17 pages.”

He continued: “So in many cases, the source material to make an episode was four or even sometimes five issues. So when we first went into it, we thought it would be possibly four 10-episode seasons. Now, the first season had 11, the second season is 12. When we talked through it, we felt, let’s make a slightly bigger Season 2 and take it through to the end. There’s always the possibility that we could do some of the other spinoff material, if you will. But it was just a question of, like, do we do it as three seasons? Do we do it as four? And again, we just decided, let’s just go for it and take it all the way through ‘The Wake.'”

(“The Sandman: The Wake” is the 10th and final collection of issues in Gaiman’s comic book series following Dream.)

It was after that choice was made that the accusations against Gaiman were first leveled in the summer of 2024.

“I can say, personally, I had never glimpsed any of this,” Goyer said. “And even when the accusations first came out, I think we were three weeks from finishing filming Season 2 — so we were very, very far down the path and Neil wasn’t as involved in Season 2 as he was in Season 1. Obviously, it’s complicated. I have tremendous respect for women that come forward in those situations. It’s really concerning, but I know that Netflix, at the time, felt, ‘God, we spent two years making this thing. There’s all these actors and writers and directors involved that, if we didn’t air it, wouldn’t be fully compensated for it.’ And so we just decided, we’re going to let this work speak for itself. But I’d be crazy to say it wasn’t weird.”

Next up for Goyer will be the third season of Apple’s “Foundation,” which is based on Issac Asimov’s sci-fi epic. And this year, is “all about The Mule.”

“Lots of people, whether it was previous adaptations, film or TV, always wanted to start with The Mule. And it was one of the things that Apple had asked about at the beginning. And I had always said, ‘The Mule is Season 3. We have to earn The Mule,'” Goyer said. “The reason why The Mule is so effective in the books is because it comes midway through the second novel, and you have to sort of set up The Foundation and set up the ways that its psychohistory seems to be kind of infallible and then Then Mule is something that turns everything– The Mule doesn’t work unless you’ve seen The Foundation succeed a number of times.”

For fans who have already read Asimov’s work and know where this is headed, and those who haven’t, Goyer says: “I don’t want to give away too much, but I will say that moving from Season 3 to Season 4 is the first time we do not jump forward centuries. So in a way, one might think of Season 3 and Season 4 as one sort of 20-episode season.”

Of course, “Foundation” has yet to be officially renewed for Season 4 at Apple, so Goyer is giving you his hopeful vision rather than the finalized plans. In that same vein, he’s also optimistic about a second season for his Alexander Skarsgård-led “Murderbot,” an Apple comedy series that he wants to bring in more than just sci-fi fans.

“We’ve hit our Byzantine-metric threshold and I think it has performed well enough that there will be another season,” Goyer said. “It’s not guaranteed, but I believe that to be the case. And the response, critically, I think, could not have gone better. And what we’re really interested in is, we knew we would get the sci-fi people in and the fans of the books, but we’re just interested in sort of branching out beyond people that typically don’t consider themselves fans of science fiction. Like my wife loves it, and she’s not a science fiction fan. And so that’s the audience that we’re going for and we’re hoping that that will continue. I don’t have the metrics yet, but I’m just really curious to see what percentage of the audience that’s watched it does not consider themselves science fiction fans.”

Just as Goyer’s time with superheroes is mostly done, he’s also looking to move away from sci-fi — though he’s still got a remake of “The Blob” in the works with director David Bruckner at Warner Bros., which he thinks “will be greenlit” this year.

“I’ve got two new things I’m working on, neither of which, unfortunately, I can talk about yet,” Goyer said. “But they’re very, very, very different from ‘Foundation’ and ‘Murderbot’ and ‘Sandman.’ It’s less complicated world-building.”

Goyer confirmed it’s not superheroes, not sci-fi, not fantasy — but “still some genre elements.” Because it’s still David Goyer.