Character descriptions are a very strange thing to try and keep under wraps, at least when it comes to a major franchise. The call-sheets that get circulated almost always end up online, and it only takes a couple of minutes before an enterprising fan base can figure out exactly who we could be seeing in any given project.
The latest to fall victim to the scuttlebutt is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade reboot, which is expected to begin production this summer. So far, Delroy Lindo is the only name other than leading man Mahershala Ali that’s been officially added to the cast, but those pesky character descriptions have surfaced once again.
One of them is “Abid”, described as a burly South Asian who took a vow of silence. In a deep cut from comic book lore, Tomb of Dracula‘s third issue featured a burly, South Asian man who didn’t talk called Taj Nital. Using some deductive reasoning, Murphy’s Multiverse has attempted to cobble some other pieces together.
Taj teamed up with Rachel Van Helsing, daughter of Abraham, to work with Quincy Harker (son of Jonathan and Mina) in order to take out Dracula. Other casting calls sought a man aged between 40-60 to play “Huntley”, and a French-speaking North African aged 20 to 40 as “Faiza”, which could be code names for several figures listed above.
Even though the idea of vampires in the MCU sounds patently ridiculous even by the standards of a superhero series, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t excited for Blade.