Sorry Marvel fans but after years of hope and hype, it seems like the long-awaited reboot to Blade is officially dead… for now.
Yesterday Marvel fans rejoiced as the latest and longest official trailer to Avengers: Doomsday dropped along with advanced ticket sales for it’s December 18th release date, but that joy was short-lived as Marvel Studios head honcho, Kevin Feige admitted defeat in the years long attempt to bring Blade into the current Marvel universe. Though there had been hope that Blade would ultimately make his way into the new “rebooted” Marvel universe that was supposed to be formed following the events of 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, Feige seemed like he had given up on introducing the “Daywalker” of a vampire into the main MCU.
According to Variety, the Marvel Studios president expressed his disappointment in the lack of progress on the Blade reboot during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast saying “I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”
Yeah, we all lowkey agree with your assessment, Mr. Feige.
Originally introducing Mahershala Ali as their new Blade at Comic Con back in 2019, the film never got off the ground as the film’s original director, Bassam Tariq exited the film just months before it was set to go into production. After that the film saw multiple screenwriters come and go as no one could seem to nail the proper story to introduce vampires into the main Marvel MCU. At one point rumors even had Marvel Studios courting none other than Jordan Peele to take on the project, but nothing came of those meetings and Blade remained in limbo.
Still, the introduction of “The Daywalker” seemed inevitable as Ali’s Blade made a quick voice cameo for a post-credits scene in Marvel’s 2021 film The Eternals, but that was as far as we got with the character.
It got to the point that OG Blade, Wesley Snipes took a swipe at the lack of progress on the franchise he made a juggernaut in the late 90’s tweeting “Blade, lordylordylordy folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough. Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”
While that might’ve rubbed some studio execs the wrong way, Kevin Feige admitted that it was “very exciting” to have had Snipes reprise his role as Blade in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
Whether or not Feige has completely given up on Blade remains to be seen as rumors have swirled about a possible Midnight Sons project being eyed for a post-Secret Wars MCU that would team up Blade with Moon Knight, The Punisher and Doctor Strange (that would be something to behold), but as of now it seems like that’s just another fanboy pipe dream.
What do y’all think? Should Kevin Feige give up on a Blade reboot or should they continue to try to bring the vampire hunter into the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.
