Recent rumors claim that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade movie has been placed on “infinite hold.” Discussions about an MCU Blade project have been ongoing for over a decade. In 2019, the franchise’s head, Kevin Feige, confirmed that Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali had been cast as Blade. However, the only appearance that Ali has made in the MCU as Blade is an uncredited voice cameo in Eternals (2021).
Industry scooper @MyTimeToShineH took to X (previously Twitter) and shared, “The Blade movie is on indefinite hold.” If this rumor is true, it would mark another setback that the project has faced since its conception.
Notably, Marvel regained rights to Blade in 2011, and it was reported in 2013 that the studio was developing a Blade movie. In 2019, Ali expressed his interest in portraying the character following his Academy Award win for Green Book (2018). This is after he already played Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in Marvel Television’s Luke Cage. Feige confirmed Ali’s casting at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC). However, the project has effectively been trapped in development limbo since then. Filmmakers such as Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange were attached to the project as directors at different points, but they ultimately exited. The movie also used to have a release date of November 7, 2025. However, in October 2024, Marvel removed it from its release schedule.
Created by Marv Wolfman (writer) and Gene Colan (artist), Blade has been part of Marvel Comics since the ’70s. Wesley Snipes played the character in the New Line Cinema’s Blade Trilogy and later reprised the role in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Since then, there have been calls for Snipes to play Blade in other MCU projects.
Contrary to recent rumors, it appears that Ali hasn’t exited the Blade project yet, though most recent reports suggest that Marvel is still looking for a director.