Blade fans shouldn’t get their hopes up of seeing Marvel’s beloved vampire hunter in the MCU anytime soon. In fact, by piecing together Kevin Feige’s latest comments on Marvel Studios’ plans, it looks like the Blade‘s future is no longer a dicey gamble and has already crossed the fence. 3u6z6p

By now, you know the drill. In July 2019, Marvel Studios made waves at San Diego Comic-Con when they revealed that two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali would play the iconic vampire hunter. Since then, Blade has seen a parade of writers and directors take on the project and abandon it, forcing MCU fans to question if the Daywalker would indeed get his movie. 

As part of the D23 event this weekend, Feige sat down with Brazilian outlet Omelete to discuss the MCU’s overall plans for the years. As expected, the man behind Marvel Studios’ curtains used the opportunity to declare his love for Ali’s Blade, a project recently booted from the MCU’s release calendar after being trapped for years in development hell. As Feige puts it:

“We’re committed to Blade. We love the character. We love Mahershala’s version of him. And rest assured, whenever we change direction with a project or are still trying to figure out how it fits into our schedule, we let the public know. You’re updated on what’s going on. But I can say that the character will make it to the MCU.”

While it’s a relief to hear that Blade’s MCU future is ensured, other parts of Feige’s interview throw some water on fans’ expectations that Blade is finally on the right track. That’s because there’s no way to fit the movie into Marvel Studios’ new reduction goals.

Blade currently has no future… at least not for the next few years 15522x

When discussing the MCU’s future, Feige underlined how the studio’s goal is to focus on quality instead of quantity. That means downsizing the number of yearly releases. As Feige puts it, Marvel Studios is trying to return to the same rhythm it had during the “Infinity Saga.” As he explains it:

“I think it’s safe to say that we’re back to a normal rhythm, more or less. In the past, we had four films and four series a year, and I think we’re going to go down to two films, three series – but that won’t be the case in 2025, specifically. It turns out that we have been working on these titles for a long time, and they happen to be ready for release now.”

That doesn’t bode well for Blade. The MCU calendar already has three movies on the schedule for 2026, one of them being Avengers: Doomsday. While Blade could potentially take the slot of one of the two untitled movies, these will most likely go to projects that tie directly into the “Multiversal Saga,” such as Spider-Man 4 and the rumored Scarlet Witch return. As for 2027, Avengers: Secret Wars has already claimed the May 7 spot. With Marvel Studios focusing on two movies per year moving forward, the earliest we will watch Blade in theaters will be by the end of 2027 if we are truly optimistic.

On the bright side, the latest rumors tell us Blade will launch a supernatural storyline that spawns multiple projects. However, Feige’s most recent updates tell us we’ll have to wait years before knowing what that means. So, for now, Marvel’s promise to bring Ali into the MCU fold and add him to its roster of superbeings is temporarily erased. While we would like to trust Feige here, projects like Blade that get stuck in development hell, undergo a gazillion changes, have a star whose fame is only climbing as the days , and have no discernable future apart from lofty promises hardly ever climb out of their frozen pits.

Blade‘s 2025 might’ve been staked, but like all vamps, he’s a hard one to kill. MCU fans bared their own fangs when Marvel recently pulled the reboot of the monster hunter’s adventures from its slate, with many blasting the studio for fumbling what should surely be one of its easiest wins in the works. Don’t despair just yet, though, Daywalkers, as it might prove to be worth the (long, long, looong) wait.

First of all, we’ve never been told that Marvel is removing Blade from its plans entirely, just that it won’t be arriving in 2025 as expected — which you didn’t need to be Tony Stark to work out was going to happen, seeing as it was due next November but only had two actors and no director to its name with just 12 months to go. The latest supernatural scuttlebutt suggests that Marvel has a careful plan in place for the character which may make sense out of this multiversal madness.

Blade supposedly delayed because it’s not part of the Multiverse Saga — it’s starting its own supernatural saga 4h191s

According to fresh rumors, Blade‘s delay doesn’t actually have anything to do with its specific developmental problems (well, OK, it has a little bit to do with that). Instead, it’s mostly because Marvel is determined to prioritize multiverse-focused stories in the wake of Deadpool & Wolverine‘s success and in the run-up to Avengers: Secret Wars.

“The real reason why #Blade isn’t getting done is because the story is disconnected from the rest of the Multiverse Saga,” Alex Perez of The Cosmic Circus tweeted. “Same goes for Armor Wars, Nova, etc. It’s not that they’re not getting made, they’re getting pushed to make room for Multiversal stories.”

For those losing faith in Blade, here’s something that might restore your hype: Kevin Feige is allegedly keen to get the movie exactly right as it is key to his plans to build out the MCU’s supernatural side. It’s this promise of much bigger things to come that has supposedly ensured star Mahershala Ali remains committed to the project, despite the frustrating false starts.

“He has a whole arc set up with Midnight Sons and the Supernatural side of the MCU,” Perez added in a follow-up tweet. “DS2, WBN, Moon Knight, Agatha and Ironheart only have scratched the surface of what’s coming. That is the only thing that’s kept him attached.”

In the face of the endless bad news surrounding Blade, fans have often joked that it’s a film about a guy who hunts vampires — why has it taken five years and counting to get it off the ground? The answer to that is apparently because Marvel is being much more ambitious than anticipated and is using this project as the lodestone for a whole new sub-franchise of the MCU. Depending on your point of view, that’s either exceedingly exciting… or it’s a classic example of Marvel running before it can walk. Or, as Wesley Snipes might put it, they’re always trying to ice-skate uphill.

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Marvel Studios just put a stake through the hearts of every fan of the Daywalker when it announced that the much-mocked Blade reboot wouldn’t release in 2025, after all. This wasn’t much of a surprise, given that it wasn’t even shooting yet, had only two people in its cast, and no director, but it was still a bummer as it seemed to confirm the vampire hunter wouldn’t be appearing in the MCU next year as expected.

That’s what we thought, anyway. As it turns out, the character will make his first appearance in the franchise — outside of the Wesley Snipes version brought back for Deadpool & Wolverine — in a certain project hitting Disney Plus in about 12 months’ time. It’s not where we were anticipating the MCU’s version of Blade to make his debut, but beggars can’t be choosers, so we’ll take it. Especially as it looks to be one of the weirdest crossovers Marvel’s yet delivered.

Blade to return to the Marvel multiverse for the MCU’s next foray into the horror genre, coming Halloween 2025 6h4w6q

Thanks to the mind-blowing Marvel sizzle reel that teased what’s due on Disney Plus over the next calendar year, we know that Marvel Zombies is coming to munch on our brains — sorry, for our brains to munch on — next October. If you take a closer look at the footage from the What If…? spin-off, you can even catch a glimpse of Blade himself, but not as you’ve ever seen him before.

In the screenshots above, you can see that Blade will feature in Marvel Zombies, but it will be a variant of Eric Brooks who, in this reality, is Moon Knight. Something like this had been reported before, but now we can confirm its truth thanks to the evidence of our own eyes. The only hitch is we don’t yet know whether Mahershala Ali will voice the character or if a soundalike will be brought in. If they bring Snipes back for this one, it will be the funniest thing Marvel’s ever done.

Fans are having all kinds of reactions to this extremely unexpected turn of events. For some, Blade becoming the Fist of Khonshu is the stuff Marvel dreams are made of.

Meanwhile, those who predicted Blade would hit the MCU in 2025 are feeling mighty pleased with themselves right now.

We live in the strangest timeline.

Marvel’s still struggling to make the simple premise of “guy hunts vampires” work, but we’ll take zombie-hunting Blade in the interim.

This Marvel Zombies news isn’t cutting through everyone’s hardened cynicism, however. “About as much Blade as the MCU will have,” was how one savage reply put it.

Clearly, there’s something in the water at Marvel HQ, as the House of Ideas seems a tad obsessed with wild Moon Knight variants of late — see the recent What If…? about Marc Spector becoming Venom. But, hey, we’re not complaining. Over what will be six years on from the announcement of an MCU Blade, the character will finally have more to his name than an audio cameo in the Eternals post-credits scene. Give it another six years, and we might finally see the movie.

The MCU has effectively handed off its magic touch to DC. The once-blessed studio has been subjected to many failures in recent memory.

Unlike the new direction of DC, headed by former Marvel director James Gunn, Marvel is flailing to find a cohesive vision. The outlier is Agatha All Along, a Disney+ original that is impossible not to love. Recently, Yassir Lester spoke to movieweb.com about the future of his project, Armor Wars. The story was originally slated to be a television series but has since been relegated to a feature film. It has been some time since audiences have heard any updates, but that isn’t up to Lester. The writer confirmed with the outlet that the film was still in active development, though that is a tricky situation.

“In the same way Blade [starring Mahershala Ali] goes away and comes back the next day, Armor Wars is — it’ll be a thing that happens every few months, then it won’t happen, then it’ll happen again.”

The Mahershala Ali led supernatural film was the most anticipated new project from the studio. It has been two decades since Wesley Snipes put on the shades of the iconic Daywalker. Adding Blade to the MCU would have raised the franchise to new heights. While magic has been acknowledged in the superhero franchise, the subject of vampires has not. Blade is an iconic comic book character that Oscar winning Ali would be perfect for.

It was heartbreaking as fans watched the prospects of the film get pushed further and further away until it was axed altogether. As it turned out, Snipe’s premonition in Deadpool & Wolverine would be correct. There’s only ever going to be one Blade.

Secret Invasion hasn’t helped the future of Armor Wars 5cp2x

Blade has undergone creative overturn and delays since it was first announced but there is no real reason why it shouldn’t be moving forward. For whatever reason, those at Marvel can’t seem to make it work. Armor Wars is getting the same treatment but as unfortunate as it is, the film always had the odds stacked against it.

Armor Wars follows the continuity of the much-maligned limited series, Secret Invasion. Premiering in 2023, the series came at a time when the Marvel brand was still exciting. On the heels of WandaVision and Loki, Secret Invasion had the potential to be another Captain America: Winter Soldier. Based on the comic run of the same name, Secret Invasion follows a secret sect of the shapeshifting Skrulls who infiltrate Earth on every level. In the comic, this had grave ramifications and genuine surprises.

Disney+’s Secret Invasion ultimately turned out to be less of an espionage film and more of a predictable six-episode run that killed off beloved characters for shock value. The series endes with Talos’ (Ben Mendelsohn) daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke) absorbing practically every ability known to man, making her extremely overpowered. The series doesn’t follow what made the comic so terrifying and the Skrull invasion didn’t have any impact on the MCU, unlike the Hydra plot of Winter Soldier.

One of the strangest developments in the series was the revelation that Rhodey (Don Cheadle) had been impersonated by a Skull. It is unclear where the MCU was planning to take this plot after, but it was supposed to segue into Armor Wars with the world at odds following the Skrull attack. The visceral reaction against Secret Invasion may have made Marvel heads reconsider the plan. But this misstep is consistent with almost every problem with franchises.

Studio executives don’t have a great understanding of what fans want. Marvel was never about alien invasions or big explosions. Viewers just want their stories to be character-driven and have real consequences. Armor Wars has the potential to work. Marvel just has to return to what made it great in the first place.

It’s official, we’re not getting Marvel’s much-anticipated Blade reboot, after all. Well, at least for the time being. Disney has officially wiped the Mahershala Ali vehicle from its 2025 calendar, proving that Wesley Snipes’ wise Deadpool & Wolverine prophecy was as spot on as we feared. And, to rub salt in the (neck) wound, we have not one, but two MCU stars making vampire movies instead.

Yes, if I had a nickel for every time a Marvel veteran was announced to be starring in a vamp-flavored film while Marvel publicly and embarrassingly failed to make Blade, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. The latest example of this unlikely trend concerns confirmed Spider-Man 4 protagonist Tom Holland, who we know is teaming up with Christopher Nolan for the Oppenheimer director’s next project.

While it’s yet to be announced, the word on the grapevine states that Nolan will be breaking out into the horror genre for the first time with his new film, as it’s rumored to be “a period horror about vampires in the 1920s.” In other words, it sounds like Nolan could be developing a kind of Interview with a Vampire for our times with Holland and Matt Damon in the leads.

The funny thing is, though, that Holland is not the first Marvel graduate to get a vampire movie off the ground while Blade remains trapped in its coffin. Black Panther‘s own Ryan Coogler is partnering up with Michael B. Jordan once again for their offering, Sinners. Ironically, this one already flipped Blade the bird when it swiped Delroy Lindo — who was supposed to appear opposite Ali in the film before he ditched it to work with Coogler instead.

Nolan vs. Coogler? The battle of the auteur vampire movie? Do we have a new Barbenheimer on our hands?

If the rumors are true and Nolan is realizing his own take on vampires while Coogler is doing the same, yet Marvel — who has a vast, pre-existing lore to draw from that does half the work for them — can’t make Blade… Well, that would just be the latest humiliation for an MCU movie that seems doomed to remain trapped in the ninth circle of development hell.

Putting the Blade of it all to the side for a second, though, can we all just appreciate these three beautiful words: vampire Tom Holland. Huge if true.

To be fair to Blade, it’s not out of the realms of possibility that Marvel could pull it together in the next couple of years and Ali’s version of the monster hunter finally sees the light of day as one of those three new MCU films Disney just scheduled for 2028. And yet, if both Nolan and Coogler manage to wow audiences and critics with their own stamps on the vampire genre, it might make Marvel’s already herculean task even more difficult. The stakes just got higher, you might say.

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Well, it’s happened. Over five years since it was first announced and three months on from Deadpool & Wolvverine slyly predicting its failure, Marvel’s Blade reboot has officially been pulled from the MCU’s slate.

Disney has updated its Marvel Studios schedule, and this includes removing the long-suffering Mahershala Ali-starring movie from the face of Earth-616. Through multiple creative overhauls — two directors have come and gone and a total of six writers have worked on the script — Blade has clung onto its intended release date of Nov. 7, 2025, but now that promise has turned to ash, like a freshly staked vampire. It is currently unclear what other project in the works, if any, Disney plans to shift around in order to fill this slot.

It’s fair to say on the scale of shocking Marvel developments, there is Robert Downey Jr. coming back as Doctor Doom on one side and this all the way over on the other. Many a fan reaction is the “pretend to be shocked” meme in action.

Some are more interested in how Blade being removed could cause the rest of Marvel’s 2025 slate to fall like a house of cards. Don’t forget, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled for next July, despite the fact that it’s currently filming. It’s not all that far-fetched that this fellow reboot could get pushed back and take over Blade‘s spot.

Someone who is disappointed by the news is Beau DeMayo, the fired X-Men ’97 showrunner who was one of those aforementioned half a dozen writers to work on Blade‘s screenplay at one stage.

Yet again, we are left to wonder why this project is proving so dang hard to make. It’s not like Marvel needs to reinvent the wheel on this one. There’s three whole movies already in existence that they can use as a guide (you can stream them all on Max). As one fan aptly put it, “He hunts vampires what is so hard.”

You know things are bad when Marvel itself calls the downfall of the Blade reboot before it becomes official. “There’s only ever gonna be one Blade,” Wesley Snipes’ Daywalker declared in Deadpool & Wolverine, earning a loaded look to the camera from Ryan Reynolds. The longer we wait for a positive update on the Ali film, the more accurate Snipes’ prediction proves to be.

As things currently stand, Blade has Thunderbolts* scribe Eric Pearson working on the script. The director’s chair remains empty, but Ali at least has one co-star still attached as Mia Goth remains on board to play the villain. Delroy Lindo, however, was supposed to appear, but he ducked out in the most ironic of moves — instead he’s making another vampire movie, alongside Marvel’s own Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan.

With no release date or director attached, there’s every chance that Blade will remain in its coffin for the rest of time and never see the light of day. It’s not the first MCU movie to stumble on its way to screens — R.I.P. Vin Diesel’s Inhumans — but it is the first one the MCU has directly lampooned in another of its own productions. The Snipes jab could’ve acted as a galvanizing force for Marvel to prove Deadpool wrong, but as it happens it was the final nail in said coffin.

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Marvel is apparently still going full steam ahead on their long-awaited movie Blade, reportedly tapping a new director who has previously collaborated with Jonathan Majors. 

The most recent development around the movie comes courtesy of World of Reel, who reported last week that Blade had signed-on Jeymes Samuel to direct the film. While Marvel has yet to officially confirm the news, the report claims the production company met with the director and was impressed enough to tap him for the movie. 

Samuel, who also goes by his stage name The Bullitts, is known for previously helming films like They Die by Dawn, The Book of Clarence, and The Harder They Fall, the last of which was released in 2021 and featured Majors — the former Kang the Conqueror actor — in a starring role. World of Reel also reported that production on Blade will finally begin in November, after years of delays and shifting directors. 

Indeed, Samuel is the third director to be attached to the project since it was greenlit way back in 2019. At that time, Blade was to be directed by Bassam Tariq, but he left the project in 2022. Then, White Boy Rick filmmaker Yann Demange was in talks to direct the movie, but he also departed around the same time that a new screenwriter was tapped to pen the script. 

The only constant in the hiccup-prone production of Blade has been Mahershala Ali, who has been on board to star as the titular vampire hunter ever since the film’s announcement. It’s rumored that the Oscar-winner will star opposite Mia Goth, who’s playing Lilith, a vampire seeking the blood of Blade’s daughter, but actors like Aaron Pierre and Delroy Lindo have departed the project throughout its years-long production.

With so many delays and departures, Blade has been on the receiving end of criticism from both fans and of the Blade universe. In June, Wesley Snipes — the star of the 1998 Blade — mocked Marvel for “still lookin for the secret sauce” in their remake. “Blade, lordylordylordy,” the actor wrote on X, “Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”. 

For his part, Stephen Dorff — who co-starred with Snipes in the first movie — said the Marvel remake of Blade is “going to be laughed at by everyone, because we already did it and made it the best.” In any case, World of Reel reports that despite being derided and in defiance of the delays, Marvel boss Kevin Feige still considers the project “a major priority” for the MCU. 

While a release date is not yet known — at this point, we’re looking at 2050 — Blade is among a plethora of movies on Marvel’s calendar, including the Robert Downey Jr.-led Avengers: Doomsday, the star-studded The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the Venom threequel, Venom: The Last Dance.

Mahershala Ali fans, Marvel fans, vampire-heads… We’re all desperate to get news about this new Blade movie that is looking more unlikely to get made by the day. Luckily, Black Panther alumni Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan took matters into their own hands and gave us the Blade prequel we didn’t know we needed.

What if we told you Killmonger’s ancestor was a vampire and maybe even Blade’s Maker? And Kate Bishop’s great-grandmother was involved in some way… We’re still ironing out the details, okay? But this is our pitch to make Coogler and Jordan‘s movie Sinners an official part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since we’re beginning to get real pessimistic about the future of Blade.

Could Sinners be the reason Blade hasn’t been able to get off the ground? y3o5k

While we’re sure Coogler and Jordan — who are frequent collaborators and friends and have also worked together in both Creed and Coogler’s first movie Fruitvale Station — are eager to step outside the Marvel world and carve their own path in the industry with an original IP film, we’re afraid the crossover potential with Blade is just too great. And fans are noticing it too.

“So, Disney can’t get a Blade made, but Warner Brothers allowed for Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan to produce their own Vampire film that will “eventually” be owned by Coogler after a few years. This is a level of pettiness that needs to be seen to believe,” one media commentator astutely observed. Is this personal for the DC Comics parent company?

Others have theorized that releasing Blade so close to Sinners would have been a marketing nightmare and could be a reason behind the Marvel film’s strange delay. Delroy Lindo, who was announced as part of Blade‘s cast early on and then ed the Sinners ensemble, exited the former in June, right in the middle of production for the latter.

Sinners was ultimately pitched, sold, filmed, and promoted faster than Marvel could finish the Blade script or find a director. Six writers and two directors have worked on the project so far, though no filmmaker is attached to it at present, and it’s unsure whether the most recent draft — from the mind of loyal Marvel scribe Eric Pearson, who’s worked on nearly every Marvel film of the last decade — will be the screenplay’s final version.

The last we heard of Blade‘s status came from Feige himself, who reassured fans the studio was “so committed to [the movie] that we’re not going to make it until it’s right.” A recent report claimed Marvel would make a final decision about the film by the end of 2024. Keep in mind this film was announced in 2019, and originally given a 2023 release date, but at least Mahershala Ali and Mia Goth are still interested.

What we know about Sinners m1521

Sinners was kept a secret for most of its production, and, for a while, all we knew was that it would be a “period thriller (some have said it takes place in the Jim Crow-era South) involving the undead,” per The Hollywood Reporter. Rumors of vampires were also rampant. Now, Warner Bros. has released its first trailer and it looks really good (albeit cryptic and confusing — as any good trailer should be).

The official synopsis, shared on X by film reporter Erik Davis, says the film will follow twin brothers, both played by Jordan, who will try to “leave their troubled lives behind.” When they return to their hometown to “start again,” however, they discover “an even greater evil waiting to welcome them back.” Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, and Omar Benson Miller also star, with Jack O’Connell playing the villain.

Warner Bros. was the ultimate winner of a fierce bidding war for Sinners, which will hit theaters in the United States March 7, 2025. Back in May, we picked it as one of our most anticipated original movies releasing next year.

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It’s decision time. You might think that after Deadpool & Wolverine Marvel would have money to burn on a couple of projects they’re not entirely sure about, but in actual fact it seems the situation is the exact opposite — with one mega-smash rehabilitating the franchise’s image, the studio is keen to keep as high a hit rate as possible, so that means some movies on the bubble might get popped.

Two such films whose futures are in frenzy? The long-suffering Blade reboot, starring Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker, and the oft-forgotten Armor Wars, which would finally give Don Cheadle his own vehicle as War Machine. Both of these films have been in the works for half a decade at this point, but it might all end up counting for nothing. That is, if the latest rumored intel is to be believed. Insider Daniel Richtman has shared that Marvel will allegedly make a final decision on the fates of both Blade and Armor Wars by the time 2024 is out.

Unsurprisingly, fans are using this as an opportunity to hand Marvel some unsolicited advice over what they should do with these two projects. The studio’s getting so many two cents thrown at them, in fact, that they might just want to open a wishing well. For starters, many seem to think that if one has to die so the other can live then the survivor should be Armor Wars.

Some believe Blade‘s pre-production purgatory means it should be sent straight to hell.

Not that folks hate the idea of Ali playing Blade. Other suggested retooling Blade as a Midnight Sons team-up movie.

Some more cynical sorts think that this talk of a final decision is just hot air and the fact Marvel hasn’t made either of them yet means their fates have already been sealed.

If Marvel is really planning on cancelling both, however, this is not exactly a great look, considering that these are two projects featuring Black leads — something that’s still a rarity in the MCU, even in a post-Black Panther world.

If Marvel could get their act together on these films then the fans would embrace them with open arms, but as it is, their hype has been curtailed thanks to to studio “mismanagement.”

To date, Ali’s sole contribution to the MCU is an uncredited voiceover cameo in the Eternals post-credits scene (a planned crossover with Kit Harington’s Black Knight was written out of the movie long ago). Cheadle’s Rhodie, meanwhile, was last seen in Secret Invasion, which heavily implied the real War Machine had been replaced by a Skrull since 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, so that’s something we definitely need addressed, whether that’s in Armor Wars or otherwise.

In an unfortunate coincidence, fears that Marvel is cancelling its Black-led projects is coming hot on the heels of fired X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo accusing studio execs of making racist comments and establishing a prejudicial working environment. Even if both Blade and Armor Wars do bite the bullet, though, it should be stressed that Disney Plus series Ironheart and Wonder Man both have Black actors in the lead.

There’s only one Blade — that’s what Wesley Snipes declared in Deadpool & Wolverine, and it’s looking like that will remain the case as the MCU’s Mahershala Ali-fronted reboot continually struggles to get off the ground. In the latest development to drive a stake through the troubled production, a former writer has blasted Marvel for alleged racist comments.

Writer/producer Beau DeMayo was infamously fired from hit animated series X-Men ’97 earlier this year, with hostilities between himself and the studio becoming so bad that he won’t even receive a credit on the show’s second season (which he completed work on prior to his firing). In addition to showrunning that series, DeMayo was also one of several scribes to provide a draft of the Blade screenplay. But his time working on the film was apparently not a happy one.

X-Men ’97 EP hits back at Marvel for making him “no longer feel safe as a gay Black man” 1a2w24

According to DeMayo, he was “removed” from Blade after he raised concerns over “prejudicial conditions” on the film, claiming he has the “receipts and eyewitnesses” to back up his claims.

In a 30-minute video posted to his OnlyFans page, the screenwriter alleged that one exec joked to him that he was the perfect person for the job because he looked like “a young Wesley Snipes.” DeMayo clarified: “One of the reasons I wanted to do this video is so that you can see that Wesley Snipes and I look nothing alike.” 

In addition, DeMayo said that “the last straw” for him on the project came when he arrived at the Blade production office one day and was told “someone needed to crack the whip around here.” That idiom has long been a contentious one, as some view it as having its origins in slavery.

Elsewhere in his OnlyFans video, DeMayo hit back at Marvel’s statement that an internal investigation into his behavior found evidence of “egregious” misconduct on his part and that was the reason for his X-Men ’97 firing. The former EP blasted the misconduct claims as “offensive” lies and argued that Marvel is trying to cover up its own “toxic environment” and “near criminal working conditions.” DeMayo maintains that he “no longer felt safe at the studio as a gay Black man.”

“Someone like me dared to speak truth to people like them,” DeMayo continued. “They tried to intimidate me with both explicit and implied threats. I was not intimidated. Everything they have done since then has been designed not just to silence me and smear me, but to crush me and to remind me to know my role.”

Specific details about DeMayo’s rumored misconduct have yet to be officially confirmed, but Deadline reports that he supposedly sent unsolicited “photos” to his X-Men ’97 colleagues and faced accusations of “getting too touchy with people.” DeMayo plans to go to court to overturn what he believes is an “illegal” NDA the studio had him sign when he was terminated.

DeMayo is one of six screenwriters to have worked on Blade since it was announced at Comic-Con in 2019, with two directors also having come and gone — most recently, Yann Demange dropped out this past June. Officially, Blade is still attached to its Nov. 7, 2025 release date, but there seems about as much chance of that happening as DeMayo working for Marvel again.

First, the essentials; there’s a rumor going around that two major Marvel Studios films, Young Avengers and Midnight Sons, are due to release in 2027, and will start filming next year on top of it all. This rumor has not been confirmed in any way, shape, form, or fashion, and frankly should not be taken with any salt whatsoever.

But let’s pretend for a second that the MCU was in fact gearing up for four major ensemble films from the middle of 2026 to the end of 2027 (Avengers 5 is due out on May 1, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars hits theaters on May 7, 2027). That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Michelin-worthy recipe for falling flat on your face. This obsession with setup and scope is precisely what’s been dumpstering the Multiverse Saga as of late, and especially given the state that Blade is in, beginning production on Midnight Sons is categorically unthinkable.

In fact, at this rate, ensemble films are the last thing Marvel should be thinking about right now.

Avengers only worked because everything else did 3vz3h

As we’ve pointed out in the past, Marvel’s worst enemy post-Endgame has been a lack of proper momentum; recent projects have cared more about the next big team-up event than they do about themselves, and we viewers are physiologically unable to care about something that we don’t know anything about. Thus, there’s nothing really there for us audiences to meaningfully buy into (which will hopefully change with Deadpool & Wolverine and The Fantastic Four, but we’ll believe that when we see it).

This was not a problem during the saga that Iron Man kicked off. Earlier MCU films made entire trilogies centered around individual characters, and each entry was entirely in service to itself and the story that it was telling about its protagonist; from 2008 to roughly 2011, an ensemble event film like 2012’s Avengers wasn’t anyone’s priority whatsoever. This mentality continued with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man films, the first two Ant-Mans, and the pre-Endgame Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther films; these were stories first and stepping stones second (and it wasn’t a close second, either), and we could subsequently buy into the Avengers-level stakes because those previous stories resonated with us.

But now, these films and television shows are stepping stones first, because these big event films have inadvertently become the Marvel North Star, and the exciting muchness of such events has resulted in the studio neglecting to inspect the proverbial rocket so as to get on with the trademark takeoff (or, at least, what they believe to be such). And that’s just considering one ensemble film; cohesively roping together three or even four? All in the same pot? Competing against all the noise of the others at the same time? Forget about it.

But the fact remains that ensemble films can still work; the problem right now is that something like Midnight Sons or Young Avengers or even the two Avengers films that we actually know exist, doesn’t have an “everything else” to work so that they can also work.

In a better world, Blade would have been the new Iron Man 465c55

With that, let’s consider a Midnight Sons film for a moment.

Imagine, after Endgame had wrapped and maybe after tying up the Spider-Man trilogy, if Marvel Studios took a break for a year or two while cooking up Blade behind the scenes, ultimately introducing the Daywalker as the new backbone for this new chapter in the MCU. Blade would be followed by a sequel or two, and somewhere in that mix, a Ghost Rider film is launched, as is an Elsa Bloodstone feature, as well as a Moon Knight movie that isn’t terribly dissimilar from the show we already have. Conclude that phase with a Midnight Sons crossover film, and move on to the next phase, where you continue building up your core heroes while bringing new characters into the mix (maybe a returning Doctor Strange with a reimagined Nico Minoru in tow), perhaps culminating in another Midnight Sons crossover film. Repeat this again, and end on your Infinity War-Endgame equivalent with Mephisto in place of Thanos.

And once that’s done, do the same thing with Young Avengers, or X-Men, or whoever you want, but for the love of Stan, Marvel Studios, tell us a story. The aforementioned route may be out of the question by now, but the point is that Marvel shouldn’t be in such a hurry to plug as many characters as possible into their franchise just so they can appear in a three-hour CGI fest later on; they need to make us fall in love with Eric Brooks, Kamala Khan, and Scott Summers in the same way we fell in love with Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff.

And we simply cannot do that if they don’t take the time to love themselves first.

Marvel and horror fans are united in their hope that the production of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade movie will start to gain some traction. The film, due for release at the end of 2025, has just two actors attached: Mahershala Ali, who’ll play the eponymous vampire hunter, and Mia Goth, who’ll play the antagonist Lilith.

Goth has recently spoken out about the movie for the first time, reassuring fans that it’s in safe hands with Marvel Studios. She told Deadline, “They really care. They do. They want to make a great movie. That’s the sense that I get from them and that feels good.”

But precisely who is Lilith in Marvel’s comic books, and why is she the perfect character for Mia Goth to play?

Who is Lilith? 6r265v

Lilith is actually the name of two entirely different characters in Marvel Comics, and it’s important to differentiate between them here. One, an ancient demon goddess and sorceress known as the “Mother of All Demons,” will not be played by Mia Goth.

The other, the daughter of Count Dracula himself and Drac’s only child by his first wife, Zofia, is the one Goth will portray in Blade.

Having been forced into an arranged marriage by his father, Dracula threw Zofia out, along with baby Lilith, when his dad died so he could marry the woman he truly loved, Maria. Lilith was subsequently raised by Gypsies when her mother took her own life.

When a Gypsy woman named Leandra magically transformed Dracula into a vampire, he killed Lilith’s adoptive family. In response, Lilith’s adoptive mother, the Gypsy elder Gretchin, transformed her into a different type of vampire — one without the traditional vampire weaknesses — with the specific purpose of terrorizing her biological father until he was destroyed.

As stated by the Hollywood Reporter, the original plan for Blade was to have it set in the 1920s, with Lilith coming into conflict with the titular character when she sought out his daughter’s blood — presumably to use it in some way against her father. However, that script was scrapped, so the exact intricacies of her role are currently unknown.

There is a chance Lilith will end up as a hero (or at least an antihero) in the MCU, as she’s operated as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Paranormal Containment Unit in the comics. However, it’s still likely that she’ll start off as an enemy of Mahershala Ali’s character.

Goth’s status as a scream queen makes her ideal for the role — heck, even her name conjures images of Bram Stoker’s classic novel, Dracula. Her dark roles in movies like High Life, Suspiria, and the X franchise have prepared her well to play a tortured character familiar with blood and not afraid to kill.

Blade may be stuck in development hell, but in Ali and Goth — and indeed the film’s eponymous character and Lilith — it’s got strong foundations and great potential. Here’s hoping production gets up and running soon.