Four and a half years have passed since Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige announced that a new Blade was in the works, with Mahershala Ali (Leave the World Behind) on board to play the title character. It has been a bumpy ride for the project ever since. It has passed through the hands of multiple screenwriters – Stacy Osei-Kuffour (PEN15), Michael Starrbury (When They See Us), True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, Beau DeMayo (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf). It had a director in Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli). Tariq cast Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty) and Aaron Pierre (Old) alongside Ali – then he dropped out due to “scheduling issues”, and the character Pierre would have been playing was apparently written out of the story. Yann Demange (White Boy Rick) signed on to direct the film, Mia Goth (Pearl) was cast, possibly as the villain Lilith, and Blade was just weeks away from filming when the production had to be delayed due to the writers strike, followed by the actors strike. Once the writers strike ended, Michael Green (Logan) was hired to work on a fresh draft of the script. Now the project seems to be rolling toward production again – and industry scooper Daniel Richtman has revealed some details. According to his Patreon report, Blade is an R-rated period piece that will tell the story of “Lilith going after Blade’s daughter’s blood to create an army of Daywalkers.” Lilith’s weapon will apparently be the Ebony Blade, which was previously featured in Eternals.

Exactly what year Blade will be set in to make it a period piece has not been revealed. Eternals did tell us that the Ebony Blade had made its way to the Dane Whitman character as of 2024 – and when Whitman was checking it out at the end of that film, Ali made a vocal cameo as Blade to ask him, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”

Demange had confirmed the R-rating to Deadline a few months ago, saying, “They gave me the R, which is so important. … We are going to have fun, because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got a dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.”

It has been said that Blade is going to have a budget that’s somewhere under $100 million, so that could be why Marvel Studios and Disney feel safe letting it have an R rating.

What do you think about Blade being an R-rated period piece – and what are you thoughts on that rumored Lilith scheme? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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