Blade: More disappointing updates emerge from cursed Marvel reboot
Marvel
At this point, every update about Blade gets progressively worse.
The failed Marvel movie has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons. Creatives attached to the Blade reboot are now speaking about their original ideas before Marvel paused the film indefinitely.
Grammy Award winner Flying Lotus, who recently wrote and directed Ash, revealed his plans to write music for the MCU’s Blade, with Mahershala Ali in the titular role.
“I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new Blade movie before it fell thru,” Flying Lotus wrote on X. “Maybe it’ll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho.”
I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new BLADE movie before it fell thru.
Maybe it’ll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho💔
— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) April 24, 2025
On the Designing Hollywood podcast, Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter stopped by to promote Sinners. Like Sinners, Blade was being crafted as a vampire period piece set in the 1920s. With a pause on Blade, Carter applied those similar ideas from the Blade reboot to Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.
“I was prepping Blade for Marvel, and it was a 1920s Blade story, and it got shut down because of the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike, so I was just in limbo,” Carter said on the podcast. “Having done a lot of research for this period piece about a vampire — Blade is a vampire story — [Coogler]’s wife, Zinzi, who also was a producer on [Sinners], she gave me a call and said, ‘I’m not gonna tell you the story, but Ryan has a story he’s going to tell you about … It is a period piece about vampires.’ And I thought, ‘Okay, I have already been living in that space for quite a long time prepping Blade, and Blade‘s not going to happen, so let me hear it.’”
Speaking of Sinners, Delroy Lindo, who starred in Coogler’s movie, was attached to the Blade reboot. Lindo revealed to EW that he would have played a Marcus Garvey-esque character, the leader of a community. Lindo was looking forward to playing the character until Blade “went off the rails.”
“When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input,” Lindo told EW. “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.”
Ali’s involvement in Blade dates back to 2019 when he appeared during Marvel’s presentation at the San Diego Comic-Con. However, Blade suffered numerous setbacks and ran through several directors, including Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange. In October 2024, Kevin Feige removed Blade from its November 2025 release date.
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Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and more X-Men join Avengers: Doomsday cast
Welcome to the MCU’s Mutant Era.
On March 26, Marvel Studios confirmed the cast of Avengers: Doomsday in a live stream video on the company’s YouTube page. Every 10 to 12 minutes, an actor’s chair is revealed, signaling their inclusion in the fifth Avengers film.
One of the biggest takeaways from the live stream is the additions of the X-Men. Actors reprising their X-Men characters for Doomsday include Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Ian McKellen as Erik Lensherr/Magneto, Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast, Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, Rebecca Romijn as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique, James Marsden as Scott Summers/Cyclops, and Channing Tatum as Remy LeBeau/Gambit.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Stewart, McKellen, Romijn, and Marsden appeared in the original X-Men trilogy (2000-2006) for 20th Century Fox. Cumming first appeared as Nightcrawler in X2, while Grammer showed up in X-Men: The Last Stand. After his solo outing was canceled, Tatum finally played the role of Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, the X-Men have slowly been integrated into the MCU. Stewart first appeared in the MCU as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Grammer made a cameo as Beast in the post-credits scene of The Marvels.
While Marvel did not announce the entire Doomsday cast, more X-Men casting news could be announced at a later date. It’s also possible Marvel wants to keep more X-Men appearances, including Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Halle Berry as Storm, under wraps.
The Russo Brothers return to Marvel to direct Avengers: Doomsday, which opens in theaters on May 1, 2026. View the entire Avengers: Doomsday cast here.
Sony pulls Street Fighter from release date; Phoebe Dynevor shark movie to 2026
Sony has adjusted the release plans for Street Fighter and Phoebe Dynevor’s new shark thriller.
Legendary Entertainment’s Street Fighter has been removed from the release calendar. The live-action Street Fighter had been set for March 20, 2026. The movie is co-developed and produced with Capcom, the company behind the Street Fighter video game. No casting announcements have been made for the action movie.
Last month, Kitao Sakuri signed on to direct Street Fighter, replacing Danny and Michael Philippou. The Philippous had to drop out due to their work on Bring Her Back. Sakuri is best known for directing 2021’s Bad Trip, starring Eric André, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish.
In 1994, Steven E. de Souza directed the live-action Street Fighter. The cast featured Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel William F. Guile, Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li, Raul Julia as General M. Bison, Damian Chapa as Ken Masters, and Byron Mann as Ryu Hoshi. Despite negative reviews, Street Fighter grossed nearly $100 million worldwide and has become a cult classic.
Meanwhile, Sony’s shark movie, Shiver, is moving to 2026. Originally scheduled for August 1, 2025, Shiver heads to the following summer with a new release date of July 3, 2026. Shiver now opens on the Fourth of July weekend against Universal’s Minions 3.
Tommy Wirkola, who helmed Violent Night, directs Shiver, which used to be titled Beneath the Storm. Bridgerton’s Dynevor headlines a cast that includes Whitney Peak and Djimon Hounsou. The plot remains under wraps. Wirkola is producing alongside Adam McKay and Kevin Messick. D. Scott Lumpkin serves as an executive producer.
Punisher’s Jon Bernthal on why he first walked away from Daredevil: Born Again
Warning: This article contains some spoilers for the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again.
The Punisher is back. In the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again, Jon Bernthal made his highly anticipated return as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher.
