John Wick Director Talked to Marvel About Directing Blade Reboot

Chad Stahelski is one of the most prominent action filmmakers in Hollywood, rising the ranks from his days as a stuntman on films like The Crow and The Matrix to filling the director’s chair on Lionsgate’s John Wick franchise. The filmmaker has even dipped his toes into superhero cinema, working on projects like Captain America: Civil War and Deadpool 2. At one point, the director told us he wanted to be the one to bring Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As it turns out, Stahelski told Kevin Feige as well, who says the Marvel Studios head set a meeting up to talk about potential projects the two could work on together at the Burbank-based studio.

“Marvel was very influential in my career. I owe them a great deal. Kevin [Feige] is an awesome guy and I’ve worked for him many times on second unit,” the director tells us in a new chat. “After John Wick 3, he was nice enough to carve out a big chunk of time and have nice talk. He’s been a…in a way…a very strong mentor, even though it was a short period of time. I’ve only talked to him a few times, but he has been very influential in mindset and how to do it.”

That’s when Stahelski says he told the studio boss the Daywalker was at the top of his list.

“And he actually asked me, ‘What could we ever do?’ I was like, ‘Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know if I fit that kind of studio mold, but Blade would be the one interesting thing I’d like to do,’” Stahelski continues.

Marvel Studios has since hired Bassam Tariq for the position, directing Mahershala Ali, Delroy Lindo, and others in the outfit’s reboot—and Stahelski is perfectly alright with that, all things considered.

“I don’t know if I would’ve been the best choice for that in the direction they wanted to go,” he adds. “If you want to do the edgy rated R version, yeah, give me a call. If you want to be non-apologetic, yeah. That’s me. But I think they’re protecting their brand, they’re doing their thing. The individual they selected, I think is a very good director, and I think will do a great job in the direction that I think they want to take the property.”

Blade is set for release on November 3, 2023.

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