Marvel Studios hasn’t had a big Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con since 2019 but is back this year. Flashing back to 2019, the shocking thing the studio announced was that they would be pursuing a “Blade” reboot with two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”) in the role of the vampire hunter, Eric Brooks.
READ MORE: ‘Blade’: Aaron Pierre To Co-Star In Marvel’s Vampire Killer Film Starring Mahershala Ali
Marvel didn’t reveal too much about the film but finally unveiled its release date: the mystery fall 2023 flag-in-the-ground date that previously hadn’t been revealed. Yep, “Blade” is coming on November 3, 2023, and will officially be a Phase 5 film.
The action-horror reboot that is expected to begin shooting sometime this fall in Atlanta will be helmed by Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”) from a script penned by screenwriter Stacy Osei-Kuffour (“Watchmen ” “Hunters”). Joining Ali in the cast are veteran actors Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”) and Aaron Pierre (“The Underground Railroad”).
If you’ve seen the Wesley Snipes movies, you know the story: Eric Brooks’ pregnant mother was bitten by a vampire turning him into a half-human, half-vampire hybrid. As the “Daywalker,” Blade is able to walk in the sunlight and is immune to silver, vampires’ biggest weaknesses. Mentored by the human vampire hunter Whistler, the two seek to destroy The Vampire Nation, a secret society of vampires that have aligned themselves with humans to run horrifying blood farms.
First featured in the “Tomb of Dracula” comic books in the early 1970s, Blade didn’t make his way into film and television until a string of “Spider-Man: The Animated Series” episodes ahead of his live-action film debut in the 1998 R-rated action-focused film. The box office hit was directed by Stephen Norrington after David Fincher backed out of the project that would star Wesley Snipes in three theatrical installments, the final one being produced by Kevin Feige.
What isn’t terribly clear is if the film will be PG-13 or the traditional R-rating that was used for S pes’ trilogy. But as R-Rated “Deadpool” films and “Logan” have moved to Disney+, what once seemed like a non-starter now genuinely feels like a possibility.
