Blade Reboot Title Revealed as Marvel’s Blade, The Vampire Slayer

In a fresh update on Marvel’s upcoming Blade earlier today it was revealed that Stacy Osei-Kuffour, a member of the award-winning Watchmen writer’s room, has been tapped to pen the script for the reboot of the character. The Hollywood Reporter brought the news to the world with another minor update on the film, claiming that the title for the movie is not just Blade but will be Blade, the Vampire Slayer. ComicBook.com has reached out to Marvel for clarification on the title for the movie and will update this article if we hear anything after publication.

News that the film’s title is reportedly “Blade, the Vampire Slayer” has some Marvel fans stoked about it and others questioning why Marvel would potentially confuse audiences with a title so close to Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s worth noting that the larger Walt Disney Company owns the rights to the Buffy film and series after acquiring 20th Century Fox, but it seems unlikely that there’s an actual connection between the two, after all there’s a comma in this one.

The lengthier title rather than simply “Blade” or “Marvel’s Blade” is likely being done to differentiate it even further from the Wesley Snipes starring film. Though the movie was a hit and arguably kick started Hollywood’s craze with comic book movies after its premiere in 1998, Marvel Studios is in the unique position to continue rebooting properties that audiences are familiar with but which are now situated in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. They did this previously with Spider-Man and will do it again with Blade, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.

Two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will take on the titular role in the film, with today’s news revealing that he was part of the hiring process that selected Osei-Kuffour as the screenwriter for the project. For now the studio will look to hire a director to board the project as it moves further into development.

“Since they were having conversations about bringing it back into being, I just wanted to be considered for it because I had definitely a connection, at least in my mind, to Wesley Snipes going back to high school,” Ali previously told The Tight Rope. “I just brought it up as someone who really wanted to take on that [Blade] role and tackle that…I love that it’s darker. That’s all in terms of tone. He’s a little bit darker than some of the other ones and so that element was attractive to me.”

Blade has yet to set a release date but the hiring of a screenwriter no doubt means the studio is eager to see it released within the next few years.