Kevin Feige Finally Speaks On Delays Of MCU’s Blade Film

After six years, it seems like Marvel Studios is no closer to bringing Mahershala Ali’s Blade to a big screen near you. At least, all these years later, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige is out here talking about the film instead of treating it like an unwanted stepchild.

It was reported Marvel was first working on a new Blade film way back in 2013, with Wesley Snipes himself confirming he wanted to return to the character a few years later. Nothing ever came of that particular project, but Marvel Studios did announce in 2019 that a reboot was coming with Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter. Since then, the Blade reboot has been in various states of production hell, with many fans wondering if it’ll ever happen at all. To pour salt in the wound, Snipes did end up returning as the original Blade in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. In the film, Snipes’ Blade states, “There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever gonna be one Blade.” Simply a funny metajoke about the MCU or a face-slapping reality check about a Marvel project that is never going to work out?

This past Friday, Marvel Studios held a press conference of sorts for various journalists ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ worldwide release. Unsurprisingly, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige was asked about the goings-on of a certain vampire-related project. “We didn’t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires,” Feige stated. “It had to be unique. It fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, ‘Only accept insanely great.’ And it wasn’t ‘insanely great’ at the time. We didn’t feel like, as we often do, [that] you can have a good script and make it a great script through production. We didn’t feel confident that we could do that on Blade, and we didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”

Marvel Studios Simply Hasn’t Been Confident In Any Version Of Their Blade Film Thus Far

Is It Just Too Late Now?

When asked if he regrets announcing a Blade reboot so early into production back in 2019, Feige relented a bit: “Only in hindsight, I do. But I don’t. Because that’s the way we’d announced everything before, like that and had not not delivered.” For his part, Mahershala Ali has played the dutiful soldier, repeatedly claiming he is ready to do Blade whenever Marvel gets around to starting full-fledged production. Of course, things are never really that easy in Hollywood.

All of this is coming up now because Marvel’s big summer blockbuster The Fantastic Four: First Steps is about to hit theaters. Mahershala Ali is also starring in his own summer tentpole right now in Jurassic World Rebirth. Funnily enough, Wesley Snipes isn’t all that much older than Ali, given that the two-time Academy Award winner is already 51 years old. You’d think Marvel would want to go with a younger actor if they are planning on kickstarting a full-fledged franchise around Blade. That being said, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury was the main character in 2023’s Secret Invasion, and he was 74 at the time. Does age even matter anymore?

One thing is for sure: Marvel Studios’ Blade reboot is still a ways away, if it ever comes to fruition at all.

Source: Variety