- Much-anticipated movie had a release date of November 2025
- A new Predator film will fill the gap left by the Blade movie
- The new Blade film has had a troubled history thus far
The future of the much-anticipated Blade entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in doubt after it was pulled from the release schedule – so what could happen to it?
Off the slate
A Blade film was slated to be released on November 7, 2025, with Mahershala Ali down to star as Blade, the half-vampire hero from the Marvel comics. But it has now been dropped. In its place is Predator: Badlands, the sixth film in that particular franchise.
However, a new release date for Blade has not been announced, leading to speculation about the fate of the film.
The dropping of Blade from the schedule for 2025 wasn’t a shock. Disney CEO Bob Iger had previously said that a maximum of three Marvel movies will be released each year from now on. There are currently three other Marvel films on the slate for 2025: Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
All of the above films are already in production, but Blade hadn’t made it that far, so it would have been a tight timescale to get it ready for its planned release date. In addition, director Yann Demange had left the film in June – the latest in a series of setbacks in recent years.
Not the end
However, it doesn’t mean this is the end for Blade. No announcement has been made that the project has been shelved, and Eric Pearson still writing a script. Marvel head honcho Kevin Fiege is still keen to move forward with a reboot, but has said in interviews that they want to make the right Blade movie, and one that lives up to its predecessors, which starred Wesley Snipes in the title role.
So by taking away the deadline, it looks likely that it means that they can ensure the script is as good as possible before starting production. So we could still see a new Blade movie, but it might be quite a while to wait.
