The upcoming superhero movie, Blade, is based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. With Mahershala Ali in the lead role, the movie has seen .ultiple delays so far. The project was announced back in 2019, but 5 years later, its no close to enter production still. And even Ali’s casting news was made official along with the reveal that the Blade franchise was getting a reboot. But things do not seem to be going anywhere yet.
With multiple changes in writer, director, story, and even cast members so far, fans are now getting frustrated. Even the lead star, Mahershala Ali, was close to quitting the project, but has retained his part in the project so far. But with even more delays still happening, fans are thinking if it would be better for Ali to actually let the project go and move on.
Blade Reboot: No End In Sight For All The Problems
Disney executives, and Marvel Studios president, Kevin Fiege have pulled the plug on quite a few projects that were initially planned for the MCU. The Blade reboot is one such project which was almost scrapped by the higher ups before bringing it up again, even though things haven’t moved forward by more than an inch so far, and even that is a lot.
As reported by Variety, the Blade reboot has been through very few ups but a lot of downs so far, which is not looking too great for the project.
“With Mahershala Ali signed on for the eponymous role of a vampire, things looked promising for a 2023 release date. But the project has gone through at least five writers, two directors and one shutdown six weeks before production.”
The report further detailed that Mahershala Ali, a two time Oscar-winning actor, almost left the project after being relegated to a fourth lead position in his own project.
“Amid reports that Ali was ready to exit over script issues, Feige went back to the drawing board and hired Michael Green, the Oscar-nominated writer of “Logan,” to start anew.”
Until recently, the Marvel plan was to release Blade on February 14, 2025. But with the film not even having started production, things do not seem to be going on track still.
Fans Think Blade Should Recast Mahershala Ali
Mahershala Ali was announced as Blade back in 2019, when Marvel Studios announce the reboot project. It is 2024 now, and the movie still hasn’t gone into production. After so much delay, fans are speculating that maybe it would be better for the actor to move on from the project – at least as it’s lead star. Given Ali’s age, who is not getting any younger, and the delays still persisting, maybe looking at someone younger for the role would be a better decision.
Film critic Scott Mendelson on X recently tweeted that Ali would be old enough to play Whistler by the time the movie gets made (if it ever gets made). Even though the project already has a successful Blade trilogy under its belt, they are struggling to reboot the series. The project has gone through multiple rewrites under 5 different writers so far, and still the picture is not clear. We can only hope Kevin Feige and co. can resolve whatever issues have been delaying the project.
