‘Sinners’ Star Delroy Lindo Admits Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Production Starring Mahershala Ali Is A Trainwreck – “It Just Went Off The Rails”
Amidst all the messy productions post-Endgame up to Captain America: Brave New World, at least it can be said for what it’s worth that most of them are getting released. The same can’t be said for the Blade reboot that puts Mahershala Ali in the boots and coat of the Daywalker. Announced in 2019, the project has seen multiple delays, and many directors come and go. It’s a real vampire on the balance sheet that may never rise.
Two things have already beaten the new Blade to the punch during its long slumber: Wesley Snipes’s return to the character he made famous in Deadpool & Wolverine, after 20 years, and the release of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. The Black Panther director didn’t have the Marvel machine or bankroll behind him, but he and their rival Warner Bros. have a hit on their hands that captures the creatures of the night in a way the mainstream hasn’t experienced since the original Blade almost 30 years ago.
Sinners stars Delroy Lindo in the prominent supporting role of an aging and boozing blues musician. He was also attached to Ali’s Blade at one point as a “Marcus Garvey-esque” community leader. “I’m not saying that it would’ve been an out-and-out Garvey-ite. Not that, but just in terms of how this man’s philosophy, his ethos and what was driving him. He was a character who had, very similar to Sinners, created a community, a Black community. He was a character who was the head of this community,” Lindo explained to Entertainment Weekly.
RELATED: ‘Sinners’ Review – Music That Defines The Soul
In the beginning, the project had a sizzle that intrigued the actor, but the creative problems soon crept up on everything. “When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input,” he said. “And in the various conversations I had with producers, the writer, the director at the time, it was all leading into being very inclusive. It was really exciting conceptually, but it was also exciting in terms of the character that was going to form. And then, for whatever reason, it just went off the rails.”
Lindo officially departed Blade last summer. The film is not officially cancelled, but it was removed from the 2025 release schedule. Kevin Feige is still committed to it and bringing the character to the MCU. “But I can tell you that the character will be coming to the MCU,” Feige said in 2024 via Deadline. He’s also looking for a new director as Feige lost the last two, Bassam Tariq (These Birds Walk) and Yann Demange (Lovecraft Country), in rapid succession. Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) was also attached at one point only to soon leave.
More About:Movie News