For the third time in four months, Marvel Studios’ One Above All, Kevin Feige, provided a convention audience with an update on the studio’s 2025 film slate when he took the stage at Disney’s D23 event on August 9th. And for the third time in four months, Feige teased Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, explaining what each project would add to the ever-expanding MCU and showcasing footage for those in attendance. And for the third time in four months, there was no mention of one of the studio’s longest-gestating projects.
As was the case at April’s CinemaCon and July’s SDCC, Feige’s presentation about the studio’s 2025 theatrical slate did not include even a mention of Blade. First announced at SDCC ’19, the Mahershala Ali-led reboot was initially met with incredible anticipation; five years later, that has evolved into incredible consternation as the studio’s well-documented struggles to get the project up and running have led to concerns that it may never make its way to the big screen. And when for the third time in four months the project gets left out of a presentation by Feige about what to expect in theaters in 2025, it’s easy to understand why fans have grown concerned.
Feige isn’t acting independently in ignoring the project. During a recent investor call, Disney big cheese Bob Iger also failed to discuss the project while hyping investors on the company’s big 2025 release schedule. “In 2025, our theatrical slate remains just as robust, with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Zootopia 2, and Avatar 3,” said Iger, listing each of the other MCU films slated for 2025.
Despite being left out of Feige’s three most recent presentations about the immediate future of the MCU and currently being without a director, Blade is still listed as a November 7, 2025 release on all of Disney’s official channels. However, as the calendar creeps toward Fall, when the project was expected to begin production, the probability of Blade keeping that 2025 release date continues to decrease. And at this point–after not being mentioned during a presentation by Feige for the third time in four months–fans have begun to wonder if they’ll ever see the Daywalker’s solo project on the big screen at all.
Leave a Reply