Marvel puts Blade movie on hold, delays everything else
Deadpool 3, Fantastic Four, Secret Wars, and an unannounced movie are all swapping release dates
Aux News Blade
It’s another “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good” day at Marvel HQ, with the Mahershala Ali-starring Blade movie officially being put on pause and pretty much every other big movie on the slate getting pushed back—including some we don’t know about yet. Is this the end of Marvel’s box office dominance? No, we’ll just have to wait slightly longer to see our favorite superhero friends… and more than slightly longer in at least one case.
Speaking of, let’s start with the Daywalker: Director Bassam Tariq dropped out of the project at the end of September, with the official explanation from Marvel being “continued shifts in our production schedule” that left Tariq unable to stay on as director (uh huh, sure). No new director has been named, but The Hollywood Reporter says that the movie is now being put on hold so Marvel can a new filmmaker while it “further develops” the project. The Hollywood Reporter story notes that the movie has already gone through “several rounds of script rewrites,” so this pause seems to suggest that there are bigger issues than the loss of the director (which is usually a big tip-off that there are issues anyway).
Blade was originally set to come out on November 3, 2023, but after this pause it has been bumped way back to September 6, 2024 (that’s nearly a whole year, if you don’t have a calendar handy). If you do have a calendar handy, you may recognize that date as the one from Ryan Reynolds’ recent Deadpool 3 teases, and since Marvel still isn’t unhinged enough to release two movies on the same day, it has now also bumped Deadpool 3 to November 8, 2024. That was the original release date for Fantastic Four, so it has now been moved to February 14, 2025 (how very like Reed Richards to spend Valentine’s Day working rather than doing something nice for his wife).
Finally, Avengers: Secret Wars has been moved from November 7, 2025, to May 5, 2026, with its old date now being claimed by an “untitled Marvel pic” (as Deadline puts it). There’s also another untitled movie that has been removed from the schedule entirely after originally being set for May of 2026, which is probably bad news for fans of…something. Let’s just assume it’s The X-Men, since it’ll be a long time before we find out one way or the other.
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This leaves a pretty big gap between The Marvels (July 2023) and Captain America: New World Order (May 2024). I hope for the VFX artists’ sake that they don’t push CA up, and if anything maybe spread out the 2023 schedule a little more.As far as Blade is concerned, I wonder if there’s some hesitation to commit him to the larger MCU. Obviously Feige would want to, and probably already has a plan on how to do so, but maybe the people making the thing are trying to keep him self contained, or want the movie to be something that just doesn’t fit very well. I don’t know much about the character outside of the original movies, but he seems like he could easily exist outside the larger MCU ecosystem.
You’re forgiven if you don’t remember Mahershala Ali voice saying “I wouldn’t touch that Jon Snow” at the end of Eternals
No, I remember that, but again I just think that’s Feige opening the door. That only introduces us to the character in relation to another character who was himself barely more than introduced in Eternals, and who doesn’t even necessarily have to interact with anyone else. If Dane Cook just wanted to go on adventures with Blade from then on, that would seem reasonable enough to me.
I said this elsewhere but I think the problem with Blade is the opposite.There is no plan for Blade. Feige had no intention of introducing the character in these Phases until Marshella came to him.So now they’re trying to fit the character into the plan for the MCU. A plan that got sidetracked by COVID.So they probably don’t have a sense of urgency, they’ll mold Blade to fit whatever they want to do elsewhere in the MCU, use Blade to introduce another character or concept. But, I don’t think Blade is actually important to them. If it was they would have had a script in development and sought after an actor and not the other way around.
This makes a lot of sense too. Although I think other properties were pitched to Feige as well and he rolled them in pretty easily. I feel like Antman was initially proposed by Edgar Wright and they just kept it after he left. I’m almost certain that Chloe Zhao pitched Eternals too, although the uneven way that was included might be giving Feige pause to include something too far out of left field without a more solid plan to integrate it into the story.
I don’t think Eternals is what gives Feige cold feet.This is complete speculation with no real backing outside of looking at what Marvel had planned and how events have changed.I think the Plan for Phase 4 was to really establish the Marvel Universe. To really establish that there are events happening everywhere and that characters can come together but it doesn’t always have to be an Avengers event but you’d see lots of crossovers and mentions.Then COVID happened. Disney lost lots of money and now they’re looking to make as much back as quickly as possible so they want sure things and big hits and that’s why Phase 4 is ending so abruptly and Phase 5 & 6 are big Avengers Events in short span.
Whether they were planning Blade or not, at this point, it seems pretty clear that they are trying to make Midnight Sons happen.
My guess is that Mahershala doesn’t want to be so tightly woven into the MCU, so his movie is the easiest to move around in the production schedule and narrative timeline. It’s weird how the article is trying to insinuate there’s some deeper drama to this.
I don’t know how much the monster side of things is going to fit into the Kang saga, but it does seem that they are working towards Midnight Sons – Moon Knight, Black Knight, Blade, Dr Strange still being around plus the introduction of Werewolf by Night and Elsa Bloodstone in a well received special. I do think they likely have some looseness in terms of when it exactly comes out, but I do think it will be building to a spinoff group if nothing else.
It’s crazy that we live in a media world now where 10 months between two blockbuster superhero movies from the same “universe” seems like a long time.
2026? That’s some Avatar-style hope right there.God, I’ll be 40.
LMFAO! You expecting to die at 40?
Is this because Armor Wars is now a movie? They’re going to have to fit it in somewhere and, honestly, they’re eventually going to have to cast Fantastic 4. I don’t know if they’re waiting for some new people to become stars or what but they’re dragging their feet.As far as Blade goes…it’s hard to know where that character fits into an MCEU unless IT’S MORPHIN TIME and he’s teaming up with Spidey to fight Jared Leto’s sick sense of self-regard.Also, because of his religious beliefs, apparently Mahershala Ali will not do any kind of sex scene, even kissing. I bet there are a lot of people in Hwood who wish they had that kind of power…but it also does kind of curtail the stories you can tell with him unless he’d let a CGI doppelganger get. it. on. yaknowwhuddumsayin?
Do you not know that it’s “morbin’ time”? ah you’ve been missing out.
couldn’t be bothered to get it right
Also, because of his religious beliefs, apparently Mahershala Ali will not do any kind of sex scene, even kissing. I bet there are a lot of people in Hwood who wish they had that kind of power…but it also does kind of curtail the stories you can tell with him unless he’d let a CGI doppelganger get. it. on. yaknowwhuddumsayin?Yes, this is definitely a huge problem in the notoriously sex and romance heavy MCU. /s
Weren’t there sex scenes, or implied sex scenes, in his season of True Detective? I’m almost positive there was.
Denzel Washington has had a no kiss rule for many years, they usually find a double for those scenes, no big deal…
I think pumping the breaks a little is a good thing, and I’ll usually take whatever they’ll slide down my gullet. Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars were weirdly close together anyways
I’m surprised Marvel is willing to wait 6 years between Endgame and the next Avengers movie while the previous Avengers films all came out within a 7 year span. I’m a big MCU fan, but I’ve already started to feel the fatigue. Will I (and others I assume) even care about the Avengers in 2025/26? That’s a full 12/13 years after the first Avengers movie.
Fatigue is about too much within a time span, not the length of a time span. Anyone with MCU fatigue should want it to be farther out.
Right… there are dozens of MCU shows and movies that will be released before either one of the next Avenger movies. If I’m feeling fatigued now, three more years of content that’s already starting to feel like filler isn’t going to help.
As much as I enjoyed the movies in phase 3, it felt like if I didn’t watch them all I wasn’t living up to my geek status. After Civil War, I decided to wait till home release so I could pause the movie for breaks. Sitting for that long in a theater aggravates my sciatica.
Do you read the comics? I’m not asking to be judgmental I’m asking because if you don’t then the comics will illuminate the future of the MCU quite clearly. Alot of people say that the MCU has abandoned the comics entirely but that’s never been further from the truth. I would suggest reading Avengers 255 to 300. Just to prove my point I included my personal cover of Avengers 267/268The Avengers at this time include some very interesting characters considering the MCUNamor….hard check Hercules….hard checkPhoton AKA Monica Rambeu….checkThe Black Knight……checkCaptain America….it’s gonna be Mackie but checkThe Wasp minus Ant Man (interesting surrounding all the rumors Scott Lamg dies fighting KANG in QUANTUMANIA.Then there’s also the matter of Ironheart and its villain THE HOOD. Avengers will come when it does but it’ll be way different than any of the previous cinematic outings.
I love that they’re bringing in characters like The Black Knight and Hercules and Kang. I find it a little annoying when characters that are so new get introduced before characters that have been around much longer but overall I do think Marvel has struck a decent balance of classic and modern characters. While I’m not all that interested in “Young Avengers” etc. I think there’s plenty for fans to be excited about.
Will audiences really care about a Top Gun sequel in 2022? 🙂
Do they have plans for the character Blade or something introduced in the movie that they had to delay everything else? I haven’t been following closely but I can’t really see how Blade fits into the larger narrative to the point where everything else has to be pushed back
It’s increasingly apparent that the goal either pre or post Kang is to do a split into a bunch of teams instead of one big Avengers. We already know about Thunderbolts, but it’s not gonna be a big surprise when Avengers, New Avengers, Defenders, and Midnight Sons are also running around. That last one already has a few members floating around, right? Black Knight, Moon Knight, Jack Russell, Elsa Bloodstone, Man-Thing… Blade would make a great team leader for a squad like that. Watch, they’ll probably skip Runaways and just put Nico Minoru in here somewhere too.
‘”Watch, they’ll probably skip Runaways and just put Nico Minoru in here somewhere too.”’They already did Runaways on Hulu. And they also did Cloak and Dagger(and had them crossover with the Runaways).
No way in hell that stuff will count as MCU canon. Agents of Shield couldn’t even get a nod.
Yeah, but do you think Blade being set up for Midnight Sons is enough to push back stuff like Deadpool or Fantastic 4? I can see the need to do it for whatever the big everyone comes together movies are (I assume the Avengers movies) but to me, Blade seems like it can stand on its own enough to where you could shuffle it around basically anywhere
looking forward to the claim that the Blade movie will be “the hardest, bloodiest PG-13 we’re allowed”
Reminds me of Pitch Meeting: Morbius“There’ll be blood EVERYWHERE.”
“Ahem. PG-13.”
“There’ll be blood sound effects EVERYWHERE.”
“Oh, yeah, in this version of Blade vampires have green blood.”
So we’ll have a 50 year old Blade? I like the actor, but I thought he was old for the role when they initially announced the movie.
On the plus side, it seems clear that they’re doing something new with the story instead of just re-making Blade (which I really liked, and doesn’t need a do-over).I just hope the new stuff is an interesting story, and not scenes of Blade chillin’ with T’Challa or, uh, (consults Wikipedia) hangin’ with Heimdall.
*Andrew Garfield waits anxiously by the phone, fidgeting with his web shooter props.*
I’d like to see Blade become a prestige mini-series on Hulu. With lots of character dialogue from Blade.
The Hollywood Reporter that the movie is now being put on hold so Marvel can a new filmmaker while it “further develops” the project.
Just read it over once before hitting submit.
‘”The Hollywood Reporter says that the movie is now being put on hold so Marvel can a new filmmaker while it “further develops” the project.”’You know how you’re thinking about something you’re typing and somehow that one word you thought you typed* you say aloud and it gets omitted from actually being typed… yeah me neither.* that word here is find.
Yeah, it should read, “the movie is now being put on hold[,] so Marvel can[ned] a new filmmaker.”