In an interview with Marvel President Kevin Feige, he confirmed that the planned reboot of Blade starring Mahershala Ali is still in development, despite rumors the project was completely scrapped.
Blade Reboot Still in Development
Blade was originally a film trilogy starring Wesley Snipes, with the first film premiering in 1998. However, Feige made an announcement at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 that Blade would be completely rebooted as a new film, with Mahershala Ali taking on the leading role and bringing in the character to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time of the announcement, Blade was originally supposed to premiere sometime in late 2023.
Unfortunately, Blade fell into a series of production struggles that left its fate up in the air. The film’s original director left the project, production was halted by the Writers Guild of America strikes, and then the second director also left the project. As a result, the premiere date continuously slid from 2023 all the way to November 2025, before Blade was removed from the Marvel release schedule entirely.
Earlier this year, several internal sources revealed that the film had yet to find another director, and its future was looking bleak. Ultimately, the continued silence about the status of the reboot led to rumors it was scrapped altogether. Ali later said he was still waiting for the film to happen and told reporters “Call Marvel. I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.” The last official statement regarding Blade was from D23 Brazil in November 2024, when Feige said they were still committed to making the film.
However, a new article from Deadline includes some news about Blade still being in the works, as part of a longer interview with Feige. Deadline confirms, “Speaking of Blade, despite being taken off the calendar, the project remains in development with 2x Oscar winner Mahershala Ali still attached.”
Feige revealed there were four different versions of Blade at one point, all in various stages of development, with two of them “period” or set in the past. He goes on to confirm “we landed on modern day and that’s what we’re focusing on,” which perhaps explains why the warehouse full of period costumes for Blade was sold to Sinners costume designer Ruth Carter.
Feige was also reportedly asked about the many production issues that have plagued the film, to which he said:
We didn’t want to put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires.
You can start and have a good script and make it a great script through production, but we didn’t feel confident we could do that on Blade. We didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.
Kevin Feige via Deadline
On a related note, Feige did not drop any specific names for the new director of Blade, but did confirm there are no plans for Sinners director Ryan Coogler to take on the job. Coogler already directed Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with Marvel and is confirmed to be the director for Black Panther 3. As per Deadline, “Feige says there’s no plans, rather the director remains committed to Black Panther 3.“
With this news, it appears fans may still be able to see the Blade reboot finally happen, though there is still no anticipated release date. Meanwhile, Marvel’s upcoming schedule includes The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiering next week, Spider Man: Brand New Day in July 2026, Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026, and several more unnamed projects on the horizon.
Source: Deadline
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