According to one of its lead actors, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming projects has officially been canned by Disney.
However, it doesn’t sound like the project will never see the light of day, but rather that the version we will eventually get will have been entirely reworked… and at the very least, one of its actors won’t be in it when it finally comes out.
No prizes for guessing which MCU we’re on about, because we’ve known that Mahershala Ali’s Blade film has been in trouble for quite some time now.
The project was officially announced back in 2019. Originally, filming was supposed to begin in September 2021 and wrap in December. This was pushed back to 2022.
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Then, filming was supposed to begin in August 2022 and wrap in December 2022. Its start date was then pushed back to October. Following its original director, Bassam Tariq, stepping down from the production, the release date was pushed back to September 2024.
And now… well, nobody knows. It's been removed from the upcoming schedule of Disney releases entirely, so your guess is as good as mine.
However, thanks to a recent interview with one of its original stars, we now at least know who won’t be in it.
Delroy Lindo, who was originally attached to Blade during the early days of its pre-production, revealed to Entertainment Weekly's Nick Romano that he's left the project and that its direction has seemingly changed entirely.
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"When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input.. and in the various conversations I had with producers, the writer, the director at the time, it was all leading into being very inclusive,” Lindo revealed to Entertainment Weekly.
“It was really exciting conceptually, but it was also exciting in terms of the character that was going to form. And then, for whatever reason, it just went off the rails."
I’m not sure if this also means that some of its other attached stars are still on board, but good luck to them if they are.
At this point, I just want this film to come out so Mahershala Ali can do something else. His acting talent is being wasted while he waits for this to get off the ground.