Summary
Fans who have been holding out hope for updates on the upcoming Marvel Cinematic UniverseBlademovie may want to begin heavily tempering their expectations. Reports of turmoil within Marvel Studios indicate things are more dire than previously expected, and not just forBlade.
Even before the WGA writers' strike contributed to aproduction snag forBlade, it seems there have been issues plaguing the project for quite some time. Unfortunately, those issues remain to this day and have reportedly gotten worse. Between grinding through directors and writers like a buffet in mid-April and numerous changes to the movie’s entire premise, it’s a wonder thatBladeremains inMarvel Studios' upcoming release slate. But one instance, in particular, may have catalyzed the studio to finally put its nose to the grindstone and figure things out.
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Varietyreports that script issues forBladehad recently gotten so turbulent that the film’s highly-anticipated lead, Mahershala Ali, was even considering leaving the project. As a result, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige hiredLoganwriter Michael Green to rebuild the whole story from the ground up. The hope is that the Oscar-nominated writer will not only reinvigorate the project but convince the Oscar-winning Ali to remain.
The problems withBladehave been evident for years, and there may be more on the way, even with its new focus. Now reportedly slated for a 2025 release, Variety also reports that its budget will be under $100 million. While not a number to sneeze at for most regular folks, those numbers are far below what most would expect from a Marvel Studios movie these days. The thing is, ifBladewas the studio’s only substantial problem, it might be easier to wrangle. But there’s plenty else going on below this particular hood.
Perhaps the most glaring elephant in the room isJonathan Majors as Kang. Shortly after the character had been set up as the big bad for Marvel Studios' foreseeable future, several credible abuse accusations came out about Majors himself. This culminated in a bit of a panic because while the actor was dropped from many projects, his presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was already mostly set in stone due to having previously filmed plenty of appearances. This includesLokiseason 2, which prompted one source for Variety to comment unfavorably on the situation.
“Marvel is truly f****d with the whole Kang angle, and they haven’t had an opportunity to rewrite until very recently [because of the WGA strike]. But I don’t see a path to how they move forward with him.”
As desperate as things may seem, this is still Marvel. Despite underwhelming projections, they still know how to hype things up, like their tease of anX-Men connection inThe Marvelsand even a rumored plan to bring back the original Avengers (yes, even them). But between Majors andBlade, they still need to do a lot of cinematic tidying up if they want to remain the media juggernaut they’ve become.
Bladeis currently shooting for a tentative release in 2025.
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