It may be time for Marvel to give Mahershala Ali‘s Blade the axe.
There are big, exciting things happening in the MCU. Peter Parker is about to go on an adventure that involves the Hulk and the Punisher in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Avengers are going to face Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Then the Avengers are, uh, going to face Doctor Doom again in Avengers: Secret Wars.
One thing that doesn’t seem to be happening, however, is Blade. Following the latest development with Marvel Zombies, it may be time for them to just wave the white flag.
Mahershala Ali’s Blade has been in and out of development hell for six years
Remember 2019? What a time. Avengers: Endgame came out that year. Ali had recently won an Oscar and would soon win another. The COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t happened yet. Does that seem like a while ago? Yeah, well, that’s because it was.
That was the year when Kevin Feige told San Diego Comic-Con that Ali was going to star in an MCU Blade movie — a project that, obviously, hasn’t yet happened. Not for a lack of trying, to Marvel’s credit. A number of different writers and directors have attached themselves to Blade only to drop out later. The more you look into the behind-the-scenes reports of what’s going on, the messier and more confusing the tangled web gets.
It doesn’t change the fact that, after all this time, the only MCU appearance that Ali has had is a voice cameo in an Eternals post-credits scene. Now, we’ve just learned that while Eric Brooks will be part of Marvel Zombies, the character will be voiced by Todd Williams rather than Ali.
Marvel needs to right the ship after a meandering MCU Phase 4 and 5
There are no immediate plans for Blade, either. Perhaps things are happening behind the scenes — again, the more you look into the drama of it all, the more confusing it becomes — but the film does not have a release date at this time. Had it come out when it was originally planned, it would have been part of the MCU’s Phase 5. Unless Marvel Studios suddenly surprises everyone with an announcement, it now likely won’t even arrive until at least Phase 7.
Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU haven’t been especially kind to fans, either. There’s been some good entries in there, for sure, but we’ve also all seen people talking and complaining about how the MCU lost its magic after Avengers: Endgame. They valued quantity over quality, and the results were pretty obvious.
As Marvel heads into Phases 5 and 6, Feige is trying to turn things around and focus more on quality, as he should. But, well, let’s ask ourselves this: Do we think the Blade movie that they haven’t been able to figure out for six years is going to be the project that’s going to save the MCU? I mean. If they can’t even get Ali to voice Blade in Marvel Zombies, why should we have any faith they know what they’re doing with this character?
Canceling or shelving Blade is the right move
Mahershala Ali seems pretty sick of all of this, too; none of this is his fault, of course, but he hasn’t exactly been shy about how the project just keeps getting delayed time after time. Marvel is, of course, very aware of this; they even make a joke about it in Deadpool & Wolverine. But that hasn’t changed anything.
Let’s take a look at the flip side. It wasn’t long ago that James Gunn said they axed a DCU project because they couldn’t figure out the script. They toyed with it for a while, they couldn’t get it to work, and so they dropped it. Gunn would rather not devalue the DC Studios name by putting out subpar movies or television shows; they want everything to be good.
Unless Feige can stand up, announce a game plan for Blade — including a director, a synopsis, and a release date — in the next month before Marvel Zombies comes out, it’s over. Sometimes, things just don’t work out, and that’s okay. It might be hard to let them go, but doing so is better than putting something out that fans are going to hate.
