It should not be this hard to make a movie about ‘a superhero vampire killing other vampires’, but alas, in adding to its ever-growing number of production issues, the second overall director attached to Marvel’s Blade reboot has officially exited the project.
RELATED RUMOR: Marvel Studios ‘Blade’ Reboot With Mahershala Ali Going Back To Basics Of “Killing Vampires”
As first learned by TheWrap‘s Umberto Gonzalez via the outlet’s own alleged insider sources, director Yann Demange stepped away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe outing “a while ago and it was entirely amicable”.
Unfortunately for those curious, said sources did not provide any details as to why the director of Lovecraft Country‘s pilot episode stepped down.
However, one insider did alleged that, according to Marvel higher-ups, “getting Blade right is much more important than getting the film out.”
Far from an isolated incident, Demange is but the second director to flee from Blade‘s fangs over the course of its troubled production.
As announced in September 2021, the film was initially set to be helmed by Mogul Mowgli director Bassam Tariq, only for him to depart the MCU a year later due to “continued shifts in [Marvel’s] production schedule”.
“Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of Blade but will remain an executive producer on the film,” Marvel told The Hollywood Reporter. “We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done getting Blade to where it is.”
Of course, as anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Mahershala Ali-led reboot may already know, this directorial shake-up is only the latest problem to have arisen in the process of bringing the Daywalker back to the silver screen.
Additionally, in the five years since it was first revealed, Marvel’s Blade has seen its script rewritten at least six times (eventually transforming from a ‘girlboss’ story meant to set-up the titular hero’s daughter as the franchise’s actual vampire hunter into a reportedly simple ‘Blade kills vampires’ tale), its release date pushed back at least thrice, and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige reportedly losing his temper over the film’s abysmal pre-production quality.
At current, if it ever actually materializes – and let’s be honest, the odds are looking slim – Marvel’s Blade will unsheath its katana on November 7th, 2025.