The much-beleaguered and routinely delayed Marvel Cinematic Universe project Blade, featuring the Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali, seems to have been officially halted. It may not be shelved permanently (although the outlook is grim), but it doesn't seem the long-awaited reboot will soon gain wings.
The Playlist's Rodrigo Perez may have blew the Daywalker flames out when he heard the film was "essentially nixed." The seven-post thread delves into bad news about John Wick director Chad Stahelski taking over is just a rumor; this film has gone the way of Nova as no one is working but everyone is talking, and there is still a chance we see Blade in either Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars.
I heard some Blade news I trust. File under rumor for now if you want/take it with a grain of salt. I’m ok with that. 🧵
— yronlyhope.bsky.social (@YrOnlyHope) March 28, 2025
However, none of that is the most disheartening news about this new vision of Blade. There is something romanticized about a vampire film being Gothic. The genre is attached to vampiric ideology, and it seems to play itself the best among eerie grays in the sky swirling around castles, monasteries, and other claustrophobic towns on the brink of the death. And now it has been revealed that the film was indeed going to be a period piece.
On the Designing Hollywood podcast, Ruth E. Carter, the two-time Academy Award-winning costume designer known for her work on the Black Panther franchise and now with another Ryan Coogler project, Sinners, explained an idea about what was supposed to be the new Blade project:
"I was prepping Blade for Marvel and it was a 1920s story. It got shut down because of the writers strike and the actors strike, so I was just in limbo, having done a lot of research for this period piece. Blade is a vampire story."
She continued to talk about what was supposed to happen in 2023. Carter said the film "featured Mia Goth as a vampire villain named Lilith who wanted the blood of Blade's daughter."
Blade was going to be a movie in the 1920s set among the idea of a country forming into its own identity. And amid the dreary shadows is Blade hunting for vampires. It would have been amazing.
This concept of a film has been around since 2019. It's been a black hole of creativity within the MCU. Just see The Hollywood Reporter and its comprehensive breakdown of this vampiric roller coaster. They mention Ali having “exercised an inordinate amount of influence over the project, in a way few other actors have on Marvel movies.”
Like a vampire, this entire Blade situation sucks! Maybe it will change. Most likely it won't. But hopefully, the sun will rise and breathe new life into what could have been. Rumor has it that Marvel stills plans on introducing Ali as Blade but that it may not be in a solo movie anymore.
For more from Ruth E. Carter, the interview is below.