First announced at SDCC ’19, Marvel Studios’ Blade has become something of an enigma. Constant changes to the project’s creative team and the 2023 Hollywood strikes delayed the film so many times that fans began to believe the Daywalker would never make it back to the big screen. However, although the film was left out of Kevin Feige’s CinemaCon presentation of Marvel Studios’ 2025 films, Blade is still making its way down the production pipeline and the studio has every intention of bringing Mahershala Ali‘s passion project to theaters.
In January 2024, rumors of the latest version of the film’s script, written by Michael Green, surfaced and it sounded pretty badass. At that time, the film was said to be a period piece in which Mia Goth‘s villainous character was hunting for Blade’s daughter to use her blood to create an army of Daywalkers. Goth’s character was also rumored to be sporting the Ebony Blade, seen in the post-credit scene of Eternals to be in the home of Kit Harrington‘s Dane Whitman. While some or all of those things may still be part of the script, rumors of another revision to the project have surfaced as well as some information about when it may finally begin filming.
According to insider Daniel RPK, Blade will now be set in the MCU’s present day and will still feature Goth’s Lilith as the big bad. With a solid script now in place, production is scheduled to begin in the UK late in 2024.
Whether set in the past or the present, the film still has the potential to do a lot of heavy lifting for Marvel Studios as they continue to construct a corner of the MCU dedicated to monsters and legitimate horror projects. Werewolf By Night tested the waters in that regard and left fans hoping for more. It sounds as though Blade is not only the next step in that direction but also an important stepping stone itself as Daniel RPK also claims that the film will set up another project: Marvel Studios Midnight Sons. Midnight Sons is a term associated with a group of supernatural superheroes in Marvel Comics. They typically deal with occult threats and darker, supernatural elements within the Marvel Universe. The team has varied in its composition over the years but often includes characters like Ghost Rider, Blade, Doctor Strange, and others with connections to the supernatural or occult.
They gave me the R, which is so important.We are going to have fun because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got a dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.
-Director Yann Demange on Blade’s R-rating
Though it has been delayed more times than anyone would like to count, it sounds as though Marvel Studios has taken the right approach in taking their time to put together a strong script for the R-rated adventure. With as long as they’ve spent crafting Blade, perhaps they’ve finally found the right mix behind the scenes to make the equal of a Hattori Hanzō.
Blade is currently slated to hit theaters on November 7, 2025.
