Marvel is rumored to have killed off Mahershala Ali’s long-gestating Blade film.
On The Hot Mic show, Jeff Sneider stated, “Blade is dead. … It’s a rumor.”
“I’m hearing Blade is dead and it’s a Midnight Sons movie,” he added. “He will not be introduced in a solo movie. He’ll be introduced in Midnight Sons.”
“I think it’s just gotten to the point where, it’s just like, yeah, I don’t think you’re going to get your own movie. We can’t have like a 60-year-old Mahershala Ali fronting new comic book movies,” he said. “So I think it’s going to be Midnight Sons.”
He later reiterated, “That’s what I hear is that Blade as a solo movie. Don’t think that’s going to happen.”
The Blade movie has been in development hell since it was announced back at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. In 2021 it was announced that Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour was working on the script.
Then in September 2022 it was reported by Sneider that things were not peachy with the film, “I’m told that the current BLADE script is roughly 90 pages and features exactly TWO (lackluster) action sequences.”
“Mahershala said to be very frustrated with the process. Feige said to be spread too thin. But hey, that’s just what sources are telling me. Don’t shoot the messenger,” he added.
On the same day of Sneider’s scoop a Marvel spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that director Bassam Tariq was departing the project. The spokesman shared, “Due to continued shifts in our production schedule, Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of Blade but will remain an executive producer on the film.”
“We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done getting Blade to where it is,” the spokesman added.
Tariq said, “It’s been an honor working with the wonderful folks at Marvel. We were able to put together a killer cast and crew. Eager to see where the next director takes the film.”
It was then reported by The Direct that Moon Knight writer and X-Men ‘97 showrunner Beau DeMayo was working on the script.
After DeMayo, Nic Pizzolatto was reportedly working on it in April 2023. By November 2023 Variety reported that Michael Green was working on a script for the film.
Variety also indicated that in one of the scripts it had “morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons.”
Furthermore the outlet reported, “Blade was relegated to the fourth lead, a bizarre idea considering that the studio had two-time Oscar winner Ali on board.”
However, these claims were refuted by Michael Starburry, who also worked on the script. He wrote on X, “I worked on a draft of this before the strike. Never saw a version where Blade was 4th lead or it was a ‘narrative led by women and filled with life lessons’ but I suppose a lot could have happened since I had anything to do with it.”
He added, “He was in 99% of the scripts I was a part of.”
The film, which was scheduled to be released on November 7, 2025 was removed from Disney and Marvel Studios’ release calendar in October of 2024.
A rumor from Alex Perez of The Cosmic Circus claimed the film was removed “because story is disconnected from the rest of the Multiverse Saga.”
He added, “Same goes for Armor Wars, Nova, etc. It’s not that they’re not getting made, they’re getting pushed to make room for Multiversal stories.”
He clarified in a subsequent post, “Not make room, because they ain’t adding other movies to replace Blade’s slot. FOCUS SOLELY on Multiversal Stories is what I meant to say.”
In March of 2025 it was shared by Sneider that Cary Fukunaga was reportedly attached to direct the film, but he exited due to creative differences.
Earlier in March, Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel indicated that John Wick director Chad Stahelski was rumored as the new director for the film. Stahelski had previously shown interest in the film saying during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “Of all the things out there, I would take a swing at ‘Blade’ in a second.”
He added, “That’s one that gets under my skin; I’m like, ‘I would take a swing at that.’”
Then in April Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus revealed he was signed on to write music for Marvel Studios’ Blade film, but shared that the film is unlikely to happen as the movie does not appear to be moving forward any time soon.
In a post to X, Ellison wrote, “I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new BLADE movie before it fell thru.”
He added, “Maybe it’ll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho.”
With all of the development hell surrounding the film, David Goyer who wrote the original Blade film in 1998 shared his shock that Marvel couldn’t crack the film.
He told Josh Horowitz, “I think Blade is a relatively simple story. It’s not complicated. And I always think about when you embark on a movie like this, you have to distill down: What is the promise of the movie, right? The promise of a new Blade is that it should have insane ass kicking. It should be pretty scary. Might be R-rated. And it doesn’t have to be, it should not be complicated. It should be a simple story. So I don’t know why it’s been so hard. I have no idea why. I’m baffled.”
“Mahershala Ali is an amazing actor,” he added. “I don’t know.”
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Marshmallow Ali needs to walk away from all of this.
Didn’t most movies have separate writers and directors and only a few savants did both? Seems like these days every director wants to write the script too. Those seem like very different skills. Maybe that’s one reason it’s hard now?