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In a move that will be unsurprising to those following the woes of Marvel’s Blade movie, starring Mahershala Ali, Disney officially pulled the title from its 2025 release calendar.
Blade was on the schedule for a theatrical bow on Nov. 7, 2025, but filming still hasn’t begun, which already made it seem unlikely that the movie would achieve that goal. Now, Predator: Badlands, the new Predator film starring Elle Fanning, will take its release slot next year.
First announced in 2019 at San Diego Comic-Con, when Ali took the stage with a Blade hat at Hall H to announce his starring role as the Daywalker vampire hunter, the movie faced an uphill battle over the years. That was only made worse by delays from the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and dueling actor and writer strikes of 2023. Multiple directors, screenwriters, and actors came on and off the project. Then last year, Variety published a report about alleged creative disagreements contributing to the hangup.
Everett Collection; Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
Marvel, Entertainment Weekly has learned, is still committed to making a new Blade, but doesn’t want to make something that won’t live up to its predecessors. “For the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it, and making sure we are making the right Blade movie,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told BlackTreeTV in a recent interview. “Because there were some great Blade movies years ago.”
“We are committed to the movie and we’re so committed to it that we’re not going to make it until it’s right,” he added. “[It] has been frustrating for us and for some fans that it’s taken a while but we have a writer working on it now.”
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Wesley Snipes, meanwhile, made a triumphant comeback as the original Hollywood Blade in this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Snipes commented on Ali and the new movie in an exclusive interview with EW earlier this year at Comic-Con, saying, “It’s not the actor’s fault. There’s a lot more that goes on with pulling this Blade stuff off.” In a much more playful tone, he added, “You need a lot of secret sauce to do the Blade thing, man. Good luck. You’re my man, though.”
In the meantime, Marvel dated three other movies for release. Though the studio isn’t naming specific ones, there will now be superhero films set for Feb. 18, 2028, May 5, 2028, and Nov. 10, 2028.
