The relaunch of Marvel’s «Blade» has been postponed indefinitely.
Earlier it was reported that «Blade» would be released on November 7, 2025, but this date was taken by «Predator: Badlands» / Predator: Badlands, while the vampire thriller with Mahershala Ali now has no potential premiere date at all, according to Deadline.
Back in the summer, it became known that Marvel plans to rewrite the script «Blade», saying goodbye to the next scriptwriters and director Jan Demange (both parties were allegedly «disappointed with the long development process»).
The deal with Ali, who will play the lead role in the film, was signed back in 2019, while filming was scheduled for May 2023 — but was postponed due to strikes by writers and actors. Unlike other Marvel projects that were closed and then restarted (such as «Deadpool and Wolverine» and «Thunderbolts»), — «Blade» dismissed most of the cast and replaced as many as 5 writers.
It is known that at least two iterations of the «Blade» story were in development: one was set in the 1920s and featured the villainess «Scream Queen» Mia Goth (still in the project), who was out for the blood of Blade’s daughter; while for the other, Marvel built a huge train that was never used (probably moved on to other Disney projects).
It’s hard to estimate how much Marvel and Disney have lost over the years of development due to numerous team changes. The latest announced screenwriter is — Eric Pearson, known for the films «Thor: Ragnarok», «Black Widow», and «Fantastic Four». It was planned that he would rewrite the script by the end of the summer, but judging by the cancellation of the premiere date, something went wrong again.
The «Blade» — films are probably the first series of R-rated superhero movies. The first film was released in 1998 by New Line Cinema (the other two films were released in 2002 and 2004, grossing a total of $418.1 million without taking into account inflation). By the way, Wesley Snipes, the actor from the original «Blade», recently reprised his character in the movie «Deadpool and Wolverine» and broke the record for the longest career in Marvel.