Marvel's upcoming Blade reboot is still happening! The eagerly-awaited reworking of the popular half-vampire, half-human tale has scored a director in filmmaker Bassam Tariq.
It's been a while since we've heard any developments on the movie starring everyone's favorite daywalker, but behind the scenes tells a different story.
According to Deadline, Marvel's Kevin Feige and star Mahershala Ali met with "dozens of candidates going all the way back to the fall" originally with the intent of finding a writer-director to tackle the project.
Earlier this year, the movie landed a writer in the shape of Stacy Osei-Kuffour, who worked on HBO's Watchmen, ending that initial search strategy. It wasn't until after Osei-Kuffour's hiring that Marvel honed in solely on directors, tightening the shortlist of candidates who ended up delivering presentations on their approach to the material.
Tariq was the director who wowed Marvel, his vision "ultimately won all parties over." While this isn't quite a locked-down deal, after "months of meeting with a slew of talent" Marvel's confident they've found the person for the job. Tariq's background lies mostly in documentary filmmaking with the exception of his most recent effort Mogul Mowgli which he co-wrote with star Riz Ahmed.
Ali, who was announced way back in 2019, is tackling the role of Blade, the human-vamp ass-kicker came to life in the Marvel Comic Tomb of Dracula No.10 back in 1973. The character reached prominence onscreen in the 1998 hit Blade. The bloody, R-rated actioner starred Wesley Snipes (and some questionable one-liners) in the lead role, which he would later reprise in its two sequels. Drama besieged the entire trilogy and its final chapter failed to ignite the same critical acclaim as the first two.
No word yet on if the upcoming movie plans to tie-in to or reference the earlier franchise, but it absolutely should. Considering Ryan Reynolds' wise-cracking turn as Hannibal in Blade: Trinity and the fact Deadpool's now in the MCU proper, it'd be a great opportunity for more fourth-wall breaking. Oh, and a lot of violence too.
Ahead of the Blade reboot's arrival, why not catch up on the MCU with our guide to watching the Marvel movies in order.
