The Daywalker will have to wait a bit longer to have his time in the sun.
Disney has removed the Marvel reboot of “Blade” — starring Mahershala Ali as the titular half-vampire — from the release calendar. It was dated for Nov. 7, 2025. Disney will instead release “Predator: Badlands,” the sixth film in the otherworldly franchise, on the early November release date that was held by “Blade.”
Meanwhile, Marvel added three untitled projects to the schedule for Feb. 18, 2028, May 5, 2028 and Nov. 10, 2028.
The comic book empire’s decision to take “Blade” off the docket was widely expected after Disney CEO Bob Iger’s stated in an earnings call on May 7 that Marvel will release “a maximum of three” movies a year. Of the four superhero films Disney previously had slated for 2025 — including “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” — “Blade” is the only project that hadn’t started production.
Director Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) also exited the film in June, further delaying the film after a series of setbacks. “Blade” first jumped from a November 2023 to a September 2024 release after the first director on the film, Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”), departed the production in 2022. Demange stepped in as director, but following the 2023 WGA strike, Marvel suspended pre-production and pushed the movie again to November 2025. “Blade” also faced production and development setbacks during the early days of COVID. Regular Marvel scribe Eric Pearson (“The Fantastic Four,” “Thunderbolts,” “Black Widow”) has taken on screenwriting duties, following passes by Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo and Nic Pizzolatto.
Given the various headaches and roadblocks, Marvel didn’t want to move forward with a “Blade” that doesn’t live up to its predecessors, according to insiders. Feige has said as much in prior interviews, noting that “for the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it, and making sure we are making the right ‘Blade’ movie.”
Marvel first announced the project in 2019 at San Diego Comic-Con, following a meeting between Ali and Marvel chief Kevin Feige in which the actor pitched himself for a reboot of “Blade,” the film trilogy led by Wesley Snipes from 1998 to 2004. Known by the alter ego of Eric Brooks, Blade is one of the most classically horror-themed characters in Marvel’s roster: He can wield vampire powers without their weakness to daylight, which fuels his mission to eradicate the blood-suckers from the Earth.
Snipes made a surprise appearance as Blade in this summer’s R-rated smash “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which has grossed $1.3 billion globally. In the film, Eric Brooks cheekily tells the Merc With a Mouth, “There’s only been one Blade. There will only ever be one Blade.”
So far, he’s not wrong.
From Variety US