Mahershala Ali's upcoming Blade film is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe project to be impacted by the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel Studios' Blade, which was planned to go into production in Atlanta in June, has been effectively shut down entirely in the wake of the currently ongoing WGA strike which began on Tuesday, May 2. Reportedly, True Detective creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto had begun work on the script for the film before the strike started, but was unable to complete it despite Marvel's intentions to resume the project once the strike has concluded.
Blade Returns to Marvel's Silver Screen
The Blade reboot for the MCU was announced back in 2019 and quickly became one of most hotly anticipated Marvel projects, due in large part to Mahershala Ali being attached to star as the titular vampire hunter. Originally, Bassim Tasiq was slated to direct, but left the project in September 2022 which put pre-production on pause. White Boy Rick and Lovecraft Country director Yann Mounir Demange has since stepped in to helm the film in Tasiq's stead, a move which has been lauded by the former director.
Since Demange joined the project, Blade fans have been privy to a multitude of developments on the project. In February, an official synopsis for Blade described the character and basic plot, reading, "He is known to be a vampire hunter— half-mortal, half-immortal— who tries to rid the world of vampires as a way of avenging his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him."
The following month, it was reported that the project had suffered from further production delays, this time on the part of its star. Industry insider Jeff Sneider stated that Ali requested "script changes all the time" for a period of several months, which Sneider attributed to the actor's overt dedication to seeing his vision of the character come to life on the silver screen. Ali's only other appearance as the MCU's Daywalker so far has come in the form of a brief, off-screen voice cameo during a post-credits sequence in 2021's Eternals, which marked his official debut as Blade in the MCU.
Blade is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters on September 6, 2024.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter