New Blade Writer Breaks Silence on Joining Film

By Adam Barnhardt

Work on Marvel's Blade reboot will soon restart now the studio has found new filmmakers to make the picture. Monday afternoon, it was revealed Lovecraft Country helmer Yann Demange will direct Mahershala Ali and company from a script by Mike Starrbury. The latter has broken his silence on the matter, taking to Twitter to celebrate the occasion.

"I'm lucky to be working with an amazing, incredibly smart team," Starrbury said in his tweet. "I know there are a lot of Blade fans out there and we are going to do our best to give you a movie that you will love. Let's get it."

After the project was first announced, Marvel hired filmmaker Bassam Tariq to direct Ali. At the time, Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) was hired to write a script for the project. Tariq then departed the project in October due to production scheduling conflicts, allowing the creative team to start from scratch.

"Blade's been a beautiful ride," Tariq wrote after departing the project. "At this moment, I'm filled with love and gratitude toward the folks at Marvel as well [as] the incredible crew and cast we assembled. I'm eager to see how the next director builds on the foundation we've set."

What is the Blade reboot going to be about?

Mahershala Ali's fan-favorite half-vampire appeared in the post-credits scene to Eternals in voice only, teasing a crossover with Kit Harington's Dane Whitman/Black Knight.

"[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 us. "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."

Blade is set for release on September 6, 2024.

What other characters would you like to see make up the MCU's new Midnight Suns team? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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