Marvel's Blade reboot has officially been given an R rating.
"They gave me the R, which is so important," Director Yann Demange told Deadline.
The upcoming superhero-horror is a reimagining of Marvel's 1998 pre-MCU film, and stars two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire slayer, taking over for Wesley Snipes – who played Blade in not one, but three films.
The original film received an R rating for its massive amounts of blood – and a less violent, PG-13 version of the film just doesn't sound fun. Blade marks the second-ever MCU movie to receive an R-rating, with the upcoming Deadpool 3 being the first.
Demange was announced as director in 2022, taking over for Bassam Tariq. Tariq exited the film a month before production was set to begin, halting production before a new director was found. Production was halted once again due to the WGA strike, pushing its September 6, 2024 release date to 2025. Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, and Delroy Lindo are the only other cast members to be announced thus far.
"For Blade, 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," Demange continued. "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."
