Kevin Feige says he feels like a failure for not being able to get Marvel's indefinitely delayed Blade reboot off the ground.
"I'm feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine, and like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala [Ali]," Feige said in an interview with Josh Horowitz (via Variety).
Here's the tea: a brand new movie based on the vampire hero Blade, famously portrayed by Wesley Snipes in the 1998 film that helped get Marvel movies off the ground, was announced back in 2015. After several years without news, it was officially announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2021 that the film would be moving ahead with two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali as the titular hero.
Bassam Tariq (Ghosts of Sugar Land) was announced as director, but exited the film a month before production was set to begin in 2022. French filmmaker Yann Demange was announced as the new director later that year, but production was halted once again due to the WGA strike, which pushed its 2024 release date to 2025. The first iteration of the script took place in the 1920s, and was subsequently scrapped (though the costumes and sets may or may not have been used in the Oscar-winning horror Sinners). In 2023, the film was given a promising R rating. In 2024, however, it was removed from the Marvel release calendar entirely, and Ali (understandably) refuses to comment on it.
Snipes appeared as Blade in Deadpool and Wolverine, and it was one of the best things to ever happen to me. He also broke the Guinness World Record for longest career as a live-action Marvel character, totaling 25 years and 340 days at the time of his Deadpool and Wolverine cameo. It might be some time before we see a Blade movie, but it would be nice if they just let Snipes do it...
Next up for Marvel is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which swings into cinemas on July 31 in the US and July 29 in the UK. For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
