Marvel's Blade Reboot Shuts Down Due to Writers' Strike

Marvel's long-awaited reboot of Blade appears to be stalled once again. On Friday, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that pre-production on Blade has shut down amid on the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. Cast and crew members were reportedly informed of the decision on Friday afternoon. Production on Blade was previously expected to begin production in Atlanta at some point in June. This comes after it was announced that True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was penning the most recent iteration of the Blade script, just days before the writers' strike went into effect.

Yann Demange, who directed the pilot of HBO's Lovecraft Country, is set to direct, after the departure of original director Bassam Tariq last year.

What is Marvel's Blade reboot about?

Blade will star Mahershala Ali as Eric Brooks, a half-vampire "Daywalker" who moonlights as a vampire hunter. Ma Goth, Delroy Lindo, Aaron Pierre, and Milan Ray have all been cast in currently-unknown roles. The film will follow the thread set up by Marvel's Eternals in 2021, which featured Ali's Blade in an uncredited voice cameo and teased a crossover with Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington).

"[Blade] was [part of the scene] for reasons hopefully that would become apparent as you see more things, but [Mahershal Ali] wasn't there on the day," Eternals producer Nate Moore previously told ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast. "And we talked about two versions of that, one where we would cut to him and one where we wouldn't. 'How textual do you want it to be?' And again, it was more just for the fun of it, to tease it a little bit, to hear the voice and not see the man. He was game to do it. Because the Ebony Blade, the characteristics of the Ebony Blade are not dissimilar to some degree to vampirism and we think that's an interesting kind of thing to play with. So, we kind of knew that was on the table."

What do you think of the newest update surrounding Marvel's Blade reboot? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Blade is currently set to be released exclusively in theaters on September 6, 2024.