Two weeks ago, Marvel’s long-gestating Blade reboot (starring the great Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter) lost its director, Bassim Tariq, after a number of shifts in the film’s production schedule left him unavailable to move forward with the project in a directorial capacity. At the time, it was announced that Tariq would be staying on as an executive producer, and that Marvel was actively looking for someone else to slip into the director’s chair.
Well, it’s two weeks later, and it appears that search has yet to turn up any workable candidates: according to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel has officially smashed the pause button on Blade, just one month before the film was due to begin shooting in Atlanta.
Don’t worry, though – THR’s report goes on to say that production is expected to resume in early 2023, once a new director has been found. This would tend to indicate that Blade‘s already-announced release date of November 3rd, 2023 will be changed, but nothing’s been confirmed on that end at the time of this writing.
That’s really all we’ve got to report on this at the moment, but if you’d like a wee bit of editorializing with your news, here’s this: while it’s disappointing to learn that Blade‘s been temporarily sidelined, it only means that Marvel will have more time to get this one right. Given the ongoing popularity of the character, the hype for Ali’s turn in the role, and the presumed importance that Blade will have in Marvel’s future monster-related endeavors, we think it’s probably wise that they do so.
Stay tuned for more on Blade as it becomes available. While we’re waiting, we’ll be over here debating who Marvel oughtta be courting for this gig.
