We’ve known that a Blade movie is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019. Who can forget with the film’s star—Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali—put on a hat that said “BLADE!” and caused an excited uproar in San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H?! Though there have been some ups and downs with this movie, hopefully, we’ll only see smooth sailing for our favorite vampire from here on out. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Blade movie.
Title
The title of this movie is simple: Blade.
Blade‘s Plot
Right now we don’t have any plot details for Blade. But, we can imagine the film will borrow from the character’s comic origins. Blade debuted in the tenth issue of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic back in 1973, from writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan. He quickly became a supremely popular character, a half-vampire killer of vampires and other occult baddies. Blade first made it to the big screen in 1998 starring Wesley Snipes. Two sequels followed—one of them good—but eventually, that franchise sort of fell by the wayside.
Behind the Scenes
Playwright Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) wrote an early draft of the script. In 2021, Bassam Tariq confirmed he will direct the film via The Playlist podcast. However, Tariq has since left the project.
The director offered a brief statement about his experience with Blade.
Now Lovecraft Country‘s Yann Demange has come aboard as Blade‘s new director. In addition, Michael Starrbury wrote a new script for the vampiric movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has recently joined the project to work off of Starrbury’s script.
Blade‘s Cast
As mentioned above, two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will play the daywalking half-vampire badass in the upcoming Blade movie. Meanwhile, Delroy Lindo is joining Ali in film. While we don’t formally know who Lindo is playing, we think he could be Jamal Afari, who in the comics raised Blade and taught him all about vampire slaying. As we saw (or rather, heard) at the end of Eternals, Kit Harington will cross paths with Blade, reprising his role as Dane Whitman.
Krypton actor Aaron Pierre has joined the cast of Blade in another undisclosed character. Unlike Lindo, however, this role will seemingly have bigger implications on the Marvel Cinematic Universe than just this one film. And Deadline has also reported that X and Pearl star Mia Goth will join the cast in an unspecified role.
Blade‘s Release Date
The Blade Marvel movie will arrive in theaters on February 14, 2025.
Originally published on July 20, 2019.