Marvel had everything it needed for the return of one of the coolest characters, Blade. Mahershala Ali walked out at Comic-Con 2019 and put on a Blade cap. Marvel suddenly had a two-time Oscar winner taking over the role of an iconic character who helped pave the road for superhero cinema.
Consistently going through directors, writers, delays, release-date changes, and Marvel eventually removing Blade from the release calendar felt like Marvel was just slowly losing faith in the project. The amazing thing is that Marvel continued to announce, develop, and even release projects while Blade remained in hell.
Recently, Ali left the project, and his comments were brutal but honest because they remove much of the ambiguity. Ali basically said that Marvel is a billion-dollar company; if they wanted to make the project, they would have made it, and now Ali himself has moved on.
Arkane Lyon’s Marvel’s Blade was announced at The Game Awards in 2023 and looked like another opportunity to revitalise the character from outside the MCU. Now that project has its own cloud hanging over it, with reports that Xbox has considered cancelling the game and potentially closing Arkane Lyon.
Blade should not be Marvel’s hardest character to adapt. You do not need multiverses, enormous crossover events, or seventeen hours of prerequisite Disney+ shows. Blade hunts vampires. Give him a strong horrow/action story, an R-Rating if appropriate and build Marvel’s supernatural corner around HIM.
The funniest thing in this development hell for Blade? Marvel announced Mahershala Ali as Blade in 2019, and yet Wesley Snipes managed to return as his version of Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine before Ali could ever physically appear as the character. Ali’s only appearance in the MCU was an off-screen cameo in Eternals.
Blade isn’t a failed Marvel character; Marvel failed Blade.
