Blade<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>is still coming!<\/p>\n Marvel boss Kevin Feige<\/strong><\/a> addressed Mahershala Ali<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s long-delayed debut as a vampire slayer in the film during a recent interview with journalists. <\/p>\n \u201cMahershala<\/strong> is still attached,\u201d he said at Marvel Studios on Friday (July 18), addressing the role originated onscreen by Wesley Snipes<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Click through to find out why it\u2019s not out yet\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Kevin Feige joked about the reason why Blade<\/em> was delayed, referring to Sinners<\/em>, before giving a real answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe obstacle was, Ryan Coogler<\/strong><\/a> called and said, \u2018We\u2019d love some costumes for Sinners<\/em>,\u201d he joked, referring to costumes created by Ruth E. Carter<\/strong> for an abandoned Blade<\/em> film that Marvel commissioned, then sold back to the designer for Ryan<\/strong>\u2018s hit vampire movie. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd we said, \u2018Take \u2018em man, no problem\u2019 \u2014 he\u2019s a good friend \u2014 \u2018Take our costumes. We\u2019ll hold off on the movie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Taking a serious turn, Kevin<\/strong> then said the Blade<\/em> delay was due to Marvel\u2019s \u201cover-expansion\u201d in response to Disney\u2019s mandate to produce more content for Disney+.<\/p>\n He hesitated to use a \u201cdramatic\u201d term like \u201cfallout\u201d to characterize the resulting situation, but \u201cfor the very first time ever, quantity trumped quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had spent 12 years working on the Infinity Saga, saying, \u2018That\u2019s never going to happen to us.\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe always had more characters that people were asking about than we could possibly make, because we weren\u2019t going to make a movie a month \u2014 that\u2019s crazy. Suddenly there\u2019s a mandate to make more, and we go, \u2018Well, we do have more\u2019 \u2026 But maybe that\u2019s what we fell into.\u201d<\/p>\n The Blade<\/em> movie was announced in 2019 and originally intended to hit theaters in November 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, \u2018Only accept insanely great.\u2019 And it wasn\u2019t \u2018insanely great\u2019 at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production. We didn\u2019t feel confident that we could do that on Blade<\/em>, and we didn\u2019t want to do that to Mahershala<\/strong> and didn\u2019t want to do that to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Click through to find out when the movie will be set, and why there were four versions\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Director Bassam Tariq<\/strong> exited the project in September 2022, roughly two months before filming was set to begin. Yann Demange<\/strong> signed on to direct, only to exit the film in June 2024. There is currently no director attached. <\/p>\n Several screenwriters have also been announced through the years.<\/p>\n Kevin<\/strong> told Variety<\/a> <\/em>there have been \u201cthree or four\u201d iterations of the story, and two of which were period pieces. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve landed on modern day. Which is why we could give those costumes back to Ruth, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing on,\u201d he went on to explain.<\/p>\n As for whether he regrets announcing the film in 2019, he said: \u201cOnly in hindsight, I do. But I don\u2019t. Because that\u2019s the way we\u2019d announced everything before, like that and had not not delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n He then pointed to the \u201ctremendous amount of curveballs\u201d the studio faced between 2019 and today, including the pandemic and strike delays, as well as \u201cfriends and stars dying; and storylines shifting people because people didn\u2019t respond to them the way we wanted to; and then, with Kang, actors [Jonathan Majors<\/strong><\/a>] falling out of our ability to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n Find out what he said about characters being recast, and when.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Mahershala](\"https:\/\/cdn.justjared.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/headlines\/2025\/07\/marvel-blade-delay-2.jpg\")
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