Blade director Bassam Tariq has spoken about his upcoming reboot and promised that his Marvel movie will pay respect to the trilogy of movies starring Wesley Snipes as the vampire-hunting titular antihero.
"What's exciting about the film that we're making is [there] hasn't been a canon for Blade, as we're reading through the comics and everything," Tariq said in a recent interview with IndieWire.
"Him being a daywalker is the one thing that's been established, and you know we can't deny what Wesley Snipes did, which was he basically got this whole ball rolling. A Black man created the superhero world that we're in, that’s just the truth."
Mahershala Ali was cast as Blade at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, although the movie doesn't have a release date yet and will be part of the MCU's Phase 5. The first Blade movie starring Snipes was released in 1998 and was an R-rated blood-and-guts fest – a far cry from the family-friendly output of the MCU. Guillermo del Toro directed the 2002 sequel and the final installment came out in 2004.
Tariq added: "For me to now be working with somebody as talented and a juggernaut as Mahershala Ali, and the writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour, I'm just so – I'm so honored to be working with real Black juggernauts and Black talent. For me to just be with them in this room and listen and learn as I build this out, it's really an honor."
The director's last movie was 2020's Mogul Mowgli, which stars Riz Ahmed as a rapper who is diagnosed with a degenerative autoimmune disease. Ahmed also produced and co-wrote the movie with Tariq.
While we wait for Blade to arrive on the big screen (whenever that may be), make sure you're up to date with the MCU with our guide to Marvel Phase 4.
