Blade is not having the smoothest development, and the movie's absence at this year's San Diego Comic-Con is not a great sign.
While upcoming MCU movies like Captain America: Brave New World, The Fantastic 4: First Steps and Thunderbolts were featured in the Marvel panel, the new Blade movie wasn't even mentioned despite its 2025 release date.
Even Deadpool & Wolverine included a not-so-veiled jab at the production's problems through a celebrated cameo, which begs the question: What on Earth is happening with Blade?
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Back in June 2024, it was reported that Yann Demange exited the movie "a while ago" (via TheWrap), almost two years after initial director Bassam Tariq stepped away due to "shifts" in the production schedule.
As we wait to find out who the new director is, Eric Pearson is working on the script, following previous drafts by Michael Starrbury, Nic Pizzolatto and Michael Green.
It's not all bad news, as Mahershala Ali is still attached to Blade to star as the famous vampire-slayer superhero, as he has been since Marvel first announced the movie way back in 2019.
So as we wait to see what's next for the movie, here's everything you need to know about Blade.
Blade release date: When is Blade being released in cinemas?
Blade is set to be released in cinemas on November 7, 2025, a delay of nine months from its previous February 14, 2025 release date.
It was thought that the movie would be the last outing of Phase Five of the MCU, but it's now coming out after The Fantastic 4: First Steps (May 2, 2025), which was announced as the first movie of Phase Six, putting Blade in Phase Six.
The release date has been moving around the Marvel calendar for quite some time, being pushed back from its original release date of November 3, 2023, to September 6, 2024, due to delays in production.
There have also been delays in the filming starting date. Initially, Marvel announced that the movie would start filming in October 2022 in Atlanta, as well as New Orleans, Cleveland and Morocco.
It was then set to start filming in spring 2023, before it was put on hold by the strikes in Hollywood. Right now, we don't know when filming will start on Blade, but it'll have to be this year if it's going to be released in November 2025.
However, since Marvel has announced plans to cut back on movie releases to a maximum of three per year, don't be surprised to see Blade delayed into 2026. It's currently one of four movies set to be released in 2025.
Blade cast: Who's joining Mahershala Ali in Blade?
We've known that Mahershala Ali was going to be playing Blade in the MCU since the first announcement in 2019. He's even technically made his debut in Eternals, but only as a voice talking to Kit Harington's Dane Whitman in the post-credit scene.
It suggested that maybe Harington would reprise his role in Ali's solo movie too, but there's been no confirmation yet.
According to Harington, Dane Whitman isn't in the movie. "I think there was some misunderstanding about whether he was going to be in the Blade movie. He was never meant to be in the Blade movie and isn't," he said in July 2023.
We do, however, know that the movie will feature Delroy Lindo and Mia Goth, although their characters haven't been confirmed yet.
Aaron Pierre was also set to be in Blade, but he has since confirmed he is "no longer part" of the movie.
Blade plot: What will Blade be about?
Plot details are nonexistent for Blade right now, to the extent that we don't even know if it'll be an origin story or if the character will already be established in the MCU.
We had speculated about how Dane Whitman and Blade's meeting in Eternals could have set up a Secret Invasion crossover, but that never happened, and who knows if it's planned in the MCU's future.
In the comics, Blade and Whitman (as the Black Knight) are members of fictional spy agency MI-13, effectively the British version of SHIELD. MI-13 battled Skrulls following the events of Secret Invasion, so we could see the MCU's version of MI-13 established.
How might this play into the Blade movie? We don't know yet, but speculation is all we have for now.
Blade trailer: Any Blade footage yet?
Filming is likely a while away yet, so we'll have to wait to see the first Blade footage, and it probably won't arrive until 2025 at the earliest.
Blade is released in cinemas on November 7, 2025.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
