In seeming confirmation that the film is undergoing a brutal amount of rewrites in order to save it from Marvel’s signature writing, the latest whispers surrounding the studio’s Blade reboot have not only claimed that Kit Harrington’s Black Knight has been cut from the film entirely, but also given credence to previous leaks which suggested its story will focus on the daywalker’s daughter.
RELATED RUMOR: Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot Delayed Due To Mahershala Ali Being Unhappy With Proposed Script
These rumored developments were first detailed, as many recent tips surrounding the MCU have been, by film reporter Jeff Sneider during the March 16th episode of his and film critic John Rocha’s The Hot Mic podcast.
Following up on his previous report that the film’s star, Mahershala Ali, was still unhappy with its script over eight months after allegedly having first raised issues with its quality and as such had taken the matter of fixing it into his own hands, Sneider surprisingly informed his co-host, “Someone reached out to say that Blade’s production has gotten a little bit better. Things have shaped up.”
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However, despite this seemingly positive turn in the daywalker’s story, Sneider noted that his source had added that one of the major reasons for the production’s improvement was that “the script is ‘leaner and meaner’ and that they cut out the fat” – a declaration which left him confused due to the fact that “the script that I’d heard about was like 87 pages.”
“[I’d heard] that there wasn’t enough, that they’d basically shaved it to the bone,” he added.
As for what exact ‘fat’ was cut from the script, Sneider then revealed, “I guess what they cut out, I’d heard, was that Blade was gonna tie-in with Eternals and Kit Harrington’s Black Knight”.
“Black Knight’s not really involved in the Blade thing anymore,” he reiterated.
Interestingly, this cutting of ties between Blade and Eternals, despite the fact that the latter’s post-credits scene directly set-up the former, suggests that Marvel may still be at a loss for how to handle its black sheep entry (the Celestial corpse that emerged from the Earth at the climax of Eternals has only been referenced once since it became a permanent fixture of the planet’s surface still has yet to be addressed in any serious capacity within the MCU).
Shifting his attention slightly from the topic of Harrington’s wasted casting, Sneider then briefly noted to Rocha that the film may also “be recasting a few parts including the daughter”.
Notably, this is the first seeming confirmation from a noted Hollywood scooper that, as per a previous leak of the film’s pre-Ali-edited script, Blade‘s MCU debut will indeed feature the title hero’s offspring – and if the full script leaks are to be believed (and as of writing Marvel has provided no materials to suggest otherwise) the film will ultimately end with the young woman succeeding her father as the world’s premiere vampire hunter.
Presently, Marvel has provided no release information regarding Blade’s silver screen return.
