Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’ Still In Search Of Writers
by Erik Amaya
The Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of the Daywalker reportedly still needs a key ingredient: a writer.
As Comicbook.com noted, a Hollywood Reporter article posted early Friday on the state of representation in the film industry, Marvel Studios’ Blade is “looking for writers.” As the article explained, part of the reason the project is not yet staffed is Marvel’s commitment to hiring Black talent behind-the-scenes as well as in front of the camera. That’s a positive thing. Nevertheless, it surprised us to learn the film is still without a writer a year after it was announced.
Of course, the disconnect may lie in Marvel’s usual way of announcing projects — which is to say, it lets the trade papers reveal a lot of the particulars (cast, director, etc) over the course of a roughly four-year development cycle. But with Blade, Marvel announced the film at Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2019 with Mahershala Ali set to star. Generally, announcing a star means a writer and director are already involved. In this case, though, securing Ali seemed to be the most important aspect of the plan. Indeed, as Comicbook noted, the film is not on Marvel’s release slate, which stretches through 2023 thanks to all the recent COVID-19 delays.
As with so much of Marvel Studios, timing is key. Despite announcing Ali as the star last year, we still have to consider this the early days of Blade. Then again, maybe the studio is talking to writers right now and, in the next few weeks, we’ll discover everything is still on schedule … or at least on Marvel’s famous internal development calendar.
Blade is not yet scheduled for release.