Marvel Studios’ Blade was scheduled to begin shooting in Atlanta in early October, but things hit a major speed bump earlier this week when the reboot lost director Bassam Tariq. Even though the project was first announced at 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con, Tariq wasn’t officially confirmed to be at the helm until September 2021, but he’s gone almost exactly a year later.
With Tariq now off the job (and fans wondering if he jumped or was pushed) we may be facing a delay or worse, a complete creative overhaul. Questions have been raised about the quality of the script, which was said to be a period piece following the immortal Daywalker through the 20th century.
Now, The Illuminerdi is claiming to have information from their sources about how this would have shaken out. The primary setting would have been Europe in the 1920s, with the story following Blade’s (then known as Eric Cross) early days of training as a vampire hunter.
In Marvel Comics, Blade was born in London in 1929, so a film set in the 1920s would suggest the MCU version of the character would have to be born in the 1890s or 1900s at the earliest. The core of the movie would see Cross studying under jazz musician Jamal Afari, who recognizes his student’s affinity with knives and swords and gives him the nickname “Blade”.
The narrative would apparently then go on to show Blade carving and staking his way through the 20th century, slowly losing his loved ones to old age and vampires, and eventually dovetailing into the present-day MCU. It sounds fun and a great opportunity to show some of the older characters in their original times – perhaps any World War II scenes could feature Steve Rogers and the Howling Commandos?
It’s worth underlining that these are all rumors right now, though with scrapped casting calls essentially confirming the start of production is being pushed back, everything remains up in the air for now, but let’s just hope any delay isn’t too drastic.