A leaked production listing appears to reveal an early synopsis for Marvel Studios' upcoming film reboot of Blade, which stars Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker.The document in question was shared to Twitter by user Moviebuff1219 (@dodgerfan4life9). It describes Marvel Studios' Blade as being in "active development" and lists a number of key people associated with the production, including director Bassam Tariq, screenwriter Stacy Osei-Kuffour, producer Kevin Feige and stars Ali and Delroy Lindo.
The alleged synopsis for the new Blade movie is sure to sound familiar to those familiar with the character's original Marvel comic books, or his previous on-screen adaptations. "Himself a half-human/half-vampire, 'Daywalker' Eric Brooks (Ali) has honed his abilities to hunt down the undead who have long terrorized mankind," it reads. "A human-vampire hybrid since his tragic birth, Blade has spent his long life seeking to rid the world of vampires like the one that killed his mother. Over the years, he has mastered his own style of fighting monsters of all kinds."
The listing also explains that Blade is slated to begin production at Trilith Studios in Atlanta in the late summer of 2022. This corroborates information previously provided by The Hollywood Reporter, which reported that the film was slated to enter production late next summer when it first broke the news of Lindo's casting earlier this month. This would seem to debunk the tweet the official Marvel India Twitter account made (and quickly deleted) back in October, which listed Blade's release date as Oct. 7, 2022.
Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, the character of Eric Brooks/Blade first appeared in 1973's The Tomb of Dracula #10. Eric Brooks made his live-action debut in 1998, with Wesley Snipes starring as the dhampir in the New Line Cinema film Blade. Snipes subsequently reprised his role as Blade in 2002's Blade II and 2004's Blade: Trinity.
The Blade film trilogy was followed up the television show Blade: The Series, which saw Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones take over the role of Eric Brooks. Blade: The Series aired for a single, 13-episode season on Spike from June to September of 2006.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the aforementioned Feige officially confirmed that Marvel Studios was developing a film reboot of Blade as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Ali attached to star in the title role. This marks the second major live-action Marvel role for Ali, who previously portrayed key antagonist Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix in 2016.
Ali technically made his big-screen Marvel debut earlier this month, making a voice cameo as Blade in the post-credits scene of Eternals. "It was scary," Ali said of the cameo not long after Eternals hit theaters." Because, you know, you're talking before you're filming it. I'm pretty particular about my choices, like most actors, and so having to make some choices -- even with a line, vocally -- this early on, it brought up some very real anxieties. And it made the job real. It's like, 'Okay, this is happening now,' you know, and that's exciting."
At this time, Blade still lacks an official release date, though Feige previously confirmed that the vampire-centric reboot would not be part of Phase Four of the MCU.
Source: Twitter