Well, for those of us who believe Blade will never actually happen, this news is not a shock. TheWrap reports that the long-delayed Marvel vampire film has lost its most recent director, Yann Demange, best known for the films ’71 and White Boy Rick. He apparently left the project months ago but the news is only coming to light now.
Yann Demange was the second director attached to Blade, following Bassam Tariq who exited mere weeks before production was to start in 2022. The project was announced way back in 2019 with Mahershala Ali attached to star as the vampire-hunting antihero. Since then, multiple writers have taken a shot at the script, including Michael Starrbury, Nic Pizzolatto, and Michael Green, Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour, and Beau DeMayo.
Eric Pearson, writer of Marvel’s Fantastic Four, is currently rewriting the screenplay and he’s usually the guy to do a final polish before shooting begins. But now the film needs a new director, delaying things further.
Ali is still attached to play Blade, but his commitment has been slipping with no clear start in sight. He recently took a role in the new Jurassic World movie so he’ll be unavailable until that’s finished. Other actors, including Aaron Pierre, Delroy Lindo, and Mia Goth have come and gone, too busy to wait for a film that may or may not ever happen.
