All the way back in 2019, Marvel Studios announced that it was working on a new solo movie for its famous vampire hunter Blade, with Mahershala Ali stepping into the shades once inhabited by Wesley Snipes. Since then, it’s been a bit of an ordeal trying to get the movie made. Now, as the film’s started to build out its cast, there’s been another wrinkle to things in the form of another writer.
As revealed by the Hollywood Reporter, Nic Pizzolatto was recently brought on board to punch up the original script by Michael Starrbury ahead of the film’s May start date. Pizzolatto is best known for HBO’s anthology crime series True Detective, which Ali starred in the third season back in 2017 and later earned an Emmy nomination for his performance. The writer/director has mainly operated in TV, though he’s also written a handful of films, including the 2016 reboot of The Magnificent Seven. Blade marks the fifth movie he’s written in his career.
As previously stated, the Blade movie has had some high-profile shakeups behind the scenes since that initial 2019 announcement. Originally, Bassim Tariq was set to direct the movie from a script by Watchmen’s Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour, but production was put on pause following Tariq’s departure in October 2022 over alleged shifting schedules. Beau DeMayo (The Witcher) was brought on to rewrite the script, and a month later, rewrite duties were handed off to Starrbury as Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demarge was brought on to direct. Honestly, the only thing that hasn’t been in flux through all this is that Ali really wants to be Blade, and apparently ensure it’s the best possible version of itself.
At time of writing, Blade is expected to release on September 6, 2024.