Marvel's Blade reported to start again with fresh script
Five years on, Blade may be back to square one
Last week Marvel’s Blade was taken off the 2025 release schedule, and now we hear the film has gone back to the drawing board with a new script.
Movie industry leaker Daniel Richtman says Marvel is effectively going back to the beginning with Blade, starting with a fresh script.
The last writer known to be attached to the project was Eric Pearson, who has previously worked on Thor: Ragnarok, Blade Widow, Godzilla vs. Kong and, most recently, Transformers One.
It’s not known if he’s still part of the project with this planned fresh script, though.
The film currently has no director officially attached either, after Yann Demange left the project earlier this year, following original director Bassam Tariq’s departure in 2022.
Mahershala Ali is one of the few consistent elements of this new incarnation of Blade.
He was announced as the replacement for Wesley Snipes’s original take in 2019, and featured in the post-credits sequence of 2021’s Eternals.
Ali talked to Stephen Colbert in 2022 about his preparations for the role including a workout routine to get him “swole and jacked.” Let's hope he hasn't had to spend the entire last two years plus in the gym.
Since then, his most significant recent role was in Sam Esmail’s Leave the World Behind. He is also to star in 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth from Gareth Edwards.
Marvel’s Blade reboot project has reportedly gone through at least six scripts, or script iterations, from such celebrated writers as Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective), Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049), Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen), Beau DeMayo (The Witcher, X-Men '97) and Michael Starrbury (When They See Us).
DeMayo posted on X about the situation back in September. “I don’t get why it’s been so hard. Studio’s broken. I wrote 3 drafts and a dozen outlines in 3 impossible months,” he wrote.
“I was pulled off the project after reporting about civil rights abuses on #Blade."
He suggested Blade should be made in the mould of John Wick, and aim for a budget of around $40 million, far lower than any of the other Marvel films, at least since 2008’s Iron Man.
In its current state of development, 2026 is the very earliest we're likely to see Blade arrive on screens.