Marvel officially announced Mahershala Ali would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s vampire hunter, Blade, back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. Well, 2021’s Comic-Con (at Home) kicks off later this week, and the Blade movie is still way off in the distance. The film may not even appear during the current Phase of the MCU.

Two years after that initial announcement, it looks like the film is finally coming together. Deadline reports Marvel is “in talks” with their pick to direct the film: Bassam Tariq, who previously helmed the Riz Ahmed film Mogul Mowgli. The movie’s script is currently being written by Stacy Osei-Kuffour.

As they tell it, Marvel has done an extensive search for the right filmmakers to create the MCU’s version of Blade:

Ali and studio execs have been meeting with dozen of candidates going all the way back to the fall, at one point considering writer-director options before ultimately separating the two and tapping Osei-Kuffour to pen the script. Since her hiring, Marvel shortened its list of possible director choices and started another round meetings that started in March and went through June. Those that made the final cut met and delivered their final presentations over that time, and in the end it was Tariq’s vision that ultimately won all parties over.

This will be the first Blade movie since 2004’s Blade: Trinity the third and final film starring the movies’ original Blade, Wesley Snipes. That movie was a bomb, but the first two Blades are very good; the first may be the single most influential film of the last 25 years. The big question about Marvel’s Blade is how edgy it will be allowed to be. The original Blade films were dark, R-rated horror action films. Marvel makes PG-13 movies for all ages. Will Blade be the exception? This new Blade does not yet have an official release date from Marvel.

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