Mahershala Ali is feeling confident about the direction of the long-awaited Blade movie after previous reports suggested he almost left his leading role altogether.
While it’s clear the Marvel Cinematic Universe has recently had trouble pinning down release dates, a Variety report from last month suggested that Blade was dealing with more than director and writer troubles. In addition to going through at least five writers and two directors, the film had reportedly been struggling to pin a direction for its story.
Ali allegedly nearly left Blade altogether due to the issues with its script. Then, MCU mastermind Kevin Feige brought in Logan writer Michael Green to start over with a reported budget of less than $100 million.
An update on Ali’s feelings about the project’s status arrived in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“We’re working on it. That’s the best I could tell you,” Ali said. “I’m really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we’ll be back at it relatively soon.”
More than six years removed from the MCU Blade movie’s reveal, any drop of optimism from Ali should come as a relief for fans. Whether or not the film has finally found its footing with director Yann Demange remains to be seen, but things at least seem to be moving in a bright direction for the Daywalker for now.
“I’m sincerely encouraged in terms of where things are at and who’s on board and who’s leading the way as far as the writing of the script and the directing and all that,” Ali added. “So that’s the extent of what I can tell you.”
The project was originally announced in July 2019 and, following some delays, is now expected to premiere on November 7, 2025. That’s just one month shy of two years away, so plenty could change between now and then. Still, Ali’s optimism will hopefully lead to more positive updates as we wait for the R-rated MCU movie.
Image credit: Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Netflix
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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