MCU Blade Writer Responds To Report Of Mahershala Ali’s Hero Being The 4th Lead In The Marvel Movie

One of the writers on Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot is responding to reports about the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movie having him as a fourth lead. Despite being announced all the way back in July 2019, the new Blade movie with Ali has had a complicated journey. From numerous director changes, rewrites, and delays, the MCU audience will have to wait a bit longer to see the iconic superhero reimagined in the Avengers-based franchise.

It has been a day since the initial report emerged about what is going on behind the scenes with the upcoming Marvel Studios movies, including the reveal that Blade’s screenplay had Ali’s character supposedly being treated as the fourth lead in his own movie. However, Michael Starrbury, one of the screenwriters who worked on Blade, has broken his silence on the troubling reports about the MCU reboot movie.

Starrbury stressed that he had worked on a draft for Blade before the Writers Guild of America strike went into effect. During his time on Blade, he “never saw a version where Blade was the 4th lead” nor that there was a “narrative led by women and filled with life lessons.” However, Starrbury added, “I suppose a lot could have happened since I had anything to do with it,” before sharing that Blade “was in 99% of the scripts I was a part of.”

@TheRealJQuinten asked the writer “if Blade isn’t about Blade then why would we watch it?” Starrbury added, “He was in almost every scene when I was involved. I don’t know what happened but I’ll just say I seriously doubt he was ever the 4th lead in any draft.” At the time of this story’s publication, Marvel Studios has not commented on the initial Blade script reports.

RELATED: Every Actor Cast In MCU’s Blade Movie (So Far)

As of right now, Blade will be written by Michael Green, as he was brought in to take over the writing duties on the reboot. Yann Demange is still attached to direct, but once he and Starrbury were brought on, it was said that Marvel Studios was starting over from scratch with a whole new script. That said, it is actually unclear if Marvel Studios is anywhere near to having a completed vision for Blade’s MCU adventure.

Outside of Ali, it remains to be seen which of the previously announced cast members are actually still in Blade at all. Whether that’s Delroy Lindo, Aaron Pierre, or Mia Goth’s mystery character, the SAG-AFTRA strike has prevented the actors from being able to talk about Blade and whether they are involved with the project. Once the SAG-AFTRA strike is concluded, it is likely more rapid updates on Blade will start coming out, including who else is joining the movie and who is getting cut.

It’s a shocker that the road to Blade has been more difficult than anyone could have imagined, despite the character’s previous film success with Wesley Snipes. With all the material that exists in Blade’s mythology, it is definitely intriguing as to why Marvel Studios is struggling to find a direction for the movie. But for now, time will tell if Blade will get to filming or if Marvel Studios might scrap the movie altogether.

Source: Michael Starrbury (1,2)/Twitter

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