Once again, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been stricken by bad buzz regarding the Multiverse Saga, and once more Blade has been caught right in the middle of it.
Ever since Mahershala Ali was first trotted out on stage at San Diego Comic-Con way back in July of 2019, the reboot has been lurching from one catastrophe to the next. Having failed to gain any sort of tangible forward momentum in almost four and a half years, there’s a lot of people starting to wonder if there’s even any point in making the damn thing at this stage.
One of the several bombshells dropped in the Daywalker’s direction was talk that one version of the script effectively relegated the title hero to fourth lead, which is bizarre to say the least. Michael Starburry is just one of several to have taken a crack at the screenplay, but he revealed on social media that particular revelation is news to him.
“I worked on a draft of this before the strike. Never saw a version where Blade was 4th lead or it was a “narrative led by women and filled with life lessons” but I suppose a lot could have happened since I had anything to do with it. He was in 99% of the scripts I was a part of.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t part of the drafts penned by either Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Beau DeMayo, or Nic Pizzolatto before Michael Green became the fifth scribe to try and whip Blade into shape, but at least we know Starburry wasn’t the one planning such a radical deviation from the formula.