Untitled 2022 Marvel Studios Movie Moves to 2023: Is it Mahershala Ali’s Blade?

Marvel continues to shift its release schedule around, deciding to bump one of its 2022 dates into 2023 on Friday afternoon. The studio now has five dates reserved that year, and only two of them have movies attached — Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on February 17, and Guardians of the Galaxy on May 5, 2023. The one date moving into 2023 had previously resided on October 7, 2022, and will now aim for release on October 6, 2023. As we've speculated in the past, Marvel's insistence on keeping that date in October seems to point at one thing — the arrival of Mahershala Ali's solo Blade feature.

To date, Marvel Studios has yet to release a movie in October, and they've only three movies in November. It should be noted the studio's five 2023 dates also include a November date, which was pushed back from November 3rd to November 10, 2023 at the same time the October date was delayed full year.

Disney's decision to keep that November movie in place — in addition to another movie just a month before — is a pretty clear indication Kevin Feige and his team want to cook something special up for spooky season. A movie featuring vampires and the undead, Blade is the perfect movie for the season, and Marvel Studios seems to be going to pretty great lengths to ensure it has an October release.

After all, Ali himself has said the movie will be more on the darker side of things.

"I did this Marvel show for Netflix called Luke Cage. So in doing that show, the day it premiered, I had turned to my agent, and I had said, 'What are they doing with Blade?' Because I kept hearing they were trying to find a way to remake and put it back together," Ali previously told The Tight Rope. "And it was exciting for me to get to be in that Marvel space and TV, but for me, my goal had always been film. But also being able to participate in television in a very specific way that had real meaning, but my larger goal was to be able to really navigate between film and television."

What other Marvel characters do you hope to see join Ali's Daywalker in Blade? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!