Current Events > MCU's Blade director dropped out of project

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/THR/status/1574959974689783808

Marvel Studios Blade will no longer have director Bassam Tariq at the helm.
Blade, which has a release date of Nov. 3, 2023, was gearing up to begin shooting in November in Atlanta. It is unclear how Tariqs departure will impact the production start of the vampire action-thriller, which has Oscar winner Mahershala Ali in the title role, with the cast also including Delroy Lindo and Old actor Aaron Pierre.
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, Marvel said in a statementto THR. We appreciate Bassams talent and all the work hes done getting Blade to where it is.

Tariq thanked Marvel in his own statement: Its 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.
Blade has seen its start of production shift at least once before, if not twice, and sources say the project has undergone several rounds of script rewrites. Beau DeMayo, who has worked on shows such as Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The Witcher and its animated feature spinoff, as well as Marvels own Moon Knight, is the current writer. One source says the studio is already in search mode for a new director.
Blade has been one of Marvels more anticipated films since the studio announced the project to much fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. At the very end of the Marvel panel, Ali made a surprise appearance and put on a baseball cap with the Blade logo. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige later told THR that Ali had personally called him to express interest in playing the character.
Blade was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan for 1973s The Tomb of Dracula No. 10. He is a half-mortal, half-immortal who hunts vampires in order to avenge his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him. Wesley Snipes previously played the character in a trilogy released the early 2000s.
Tariq directed and co-wrote Mogul Mowgli, the well-regarded rap drama starring Riz Ahmed. He had been on Blade since the summer of 2021, working off an initial script from Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour.
Blade has already made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, at least partially. In 2021s Eternals, Ali made a surprise voice cameo in a post-credits scene suggesting that Marvel is poised to explore a horror side to the MCU. The director departure comes as Marvel gears up to release its first horror-themed project, the Halloween special Werewolf By Night, which arrives on Disney+ Oct. 7.

Hes still staying on to executive producer it. Probably just doesnt want to sit around to wait for this to start filming

I dunno how accurate this is, but I saw this too:

https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1575064146080829441

Damn. But thankfully we still have Blade and Blade 2 so its not as bad as still not having fantastic 4

The great news of Hugh Jackman had to be balanced out with something equally as bad.

aww man

Blade is one of the only superhero movies I could tolerate. I really hope the reboot isn't chock full of stupid shit like Marvel banter

g0ldie posted...

I dunno how accurate this is, but I saw this too:

https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1575064146080829441

Fuck me that is some perfect casting though. I just saw Mahershala in moonlight a couple weeks ago and he was amazing

CRON posted...

Blade is one of the only superhero movies I could tolerate. I really hope the reboot isn't chock full of stupid shit like Marvel banter

There's zero chance the movie will be as good as the first scene from the first Blade movie. It's a super high bar.

Executive producer seems like the dream job on these Marvel movies tbh. I don't blame him.

im gonna need them to not fuck this one up

sam raimi or bust

The fact that they're doing it as a typical PG-13 MCU movie in which the main character is all about killing is stupid as fuck.

And if they were going to have an older actor play Blade, they should have just brought back Wesley Snipes.

After doing Carnage as PG-13, it's safe to say that a PG-13 Blade is going to suck ass.

Kevin Feige "spread too thin"? ...I'm not surprised. The man must be working 24/7.

"Everything's fine. Don't worry. This was definitely the plan from the start."

Blabe

garan posted...

And if they were going to have an older actor play Blade, they should have just brought back Wesley Snipes.

A few years Ali called Kevin Fiege after he won his Oscar and talked about how badly he wanted to play Blade. This is also why it took so long to get it off the ground.

Kevin Feige is said to be spread too thin

You don't fucking say.

Pretty sure at this point executive producer means "You have done enough work to get residuals on this film forever so you can go and still get paid."

Fuck, Deadpool gets the R rating. Why can't Blade get it again?

Dis gon be garbage.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Pretty sure at this point executive producer means "You have done enough work to get residuals on this film forever so you can go and still get paid."

Basically

That sucks.

Not a massive blade afficinado but i liked the snipes movies and Mahershala is a great actor