FISCHER – The horror from behind the scenes

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

In a time of spooks and scares, there seems to be nothing more frightening than whatever is happening behind the scenes with Marvel Studios and its seemingly cursed “Blade” project.

In 2019, Marvel Studios announced that Blade’s introduction to the MCU, played by Mahershala Ali, was officially part of immediate plan for the post “Avengers: Endgame” landscape.

Ali can be heard in a voiceover cameo during the stinger at the end of “Eternals,” teasing an eventual movie slated for 2023. However, as you may have noticed, that hasn’t exactly gone to plan and thus far that off-screen cameo represents the totality of Ali’s portrayal of the vampire-hunting hero.

Instead, the production has suffered from a revolving door of directors, writers, and actors struggling to get the project off the ground in between union strikes and whatever other chaos seems to be plaguing Marvel Studios these days.

And now, as of a week or so ago, “Blade” has been pulled completely from Marvel Studios’ release schedule for 2025.

Which is wild considering that of all the franchises one might think would be a challenge to adapt, it wouldn’t be the franchise that has already put out a trilogy of reasonably successful movies.

It’s not like nobody knows how to make a Blade movie. It’s been done before.

1998’s “Blade” was the very first theatrical adaptation of a Marvel superhero (unless you count Howard the Duck as a superhero). You can trace the origins of Marvel Studios’ multi-billion dollar movie empire back to Wesley Snipes making a wisecrack about ice skating uphill.

He’s a dude with a trench coat and a katana that kills vampires. This isn’t exactly a tough nut to crack as far as story goes and I don’t think anybody is expecting the wheel to be re-invented here. I’m not suggesting that Marvel Studios reach into a longbox of comics and adapt whatever story they happen to grab, but it’s not like there’s a shortage of material to work with.

On the other hand, maybe this seemingly indefinite delay is an unholy blessing in disguise.

Here me out, and I’m addressing this next part directly to Kevin Feige, who I am confident will read this column.

We all know that once this whole Multiverse Saga wraps up in 2027, the X-Men are going to be on deck. But the MCU can’t be all mutants all the time. The MCU is going to need another thematic thread to tie everything together. We’ve had the cosmic stuff and we’ve had the multiverse stuff. It’s time to dig into the supernatural stuff.

Marvel has a wealth of characters on the spooky side to play with, many of which were already introduced in last year’s “Werewolf by Night” special. Let’s not just get Blade going. Ghost Rider is also due back for the big screen and I’m sure Benedict Cumberbatch is probably down for another Doctor Strange movie.

More importantly, Dracula himself not only has a rich history in Marvel Comics, but has crossed paths with the X-Men on numerous occasions, which is all Marvel Studios needs to set up the next big crossover event.

On the other-other hand, whatever they’re going to do though, they should probably get started sooner than later. Mahershala Ali is 50 years old now. Unless they can make him an actual vampire, the window of opportunity for him to be believably running around hacking up legions of undead is going to be closing.

So, yeah. Maybe just reach into a longbox, pull out some comics, throw together a screenplay, and let’s get this thing started.

— Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and really wants to see Wolverine fight Dracula.