‘Blade’ Hires ‘Lovecraft Country’ Director Yann Demange and ‘When They See Us’ Writer Michael Starrbury
Marvel’s Blade reboot has just found a new directing and writing team.
Late in September, surprising news arrived indicating that Blade was going to get creatively overhauled, with director Bassam Tariq exiting the picture and writer Beau DeMayo further working on the script in his absence. While it was initially stated that this exit was due to scheduling conflicts and creative differences, later reports suggested a more troubled production, with a script lacking in action, a frustrated star in Mahershala Ali, and Marvel’s star producer Kevin Feige being stretched thin between a number of major projects.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter is indicating that Blade will be moving forward with new creators at the helm of the project. Yann Demange, who directed the pilot for Lovecraft Country, will be directing, and Michael Starrbury, who co-wrote the finale to Netflix’s miniseries When They See Us, will be writing. The report indicates that the film is getting a page one rewrite hand-picked by Ali himself. The URL for THR’s article also suggests that an R-rating is being considered, though the text of the article does not definitively indicate that this is going to be the creative direction for the Marvel Studios film. (Marvel appear to be committed to making the third Deadpool movie R-rated and Marvel Zombies TV-MA, so it would not be unthinkable for Blade to be more violent than usual Marvel fare and aimed at older audiences.)
Blade is yet another franchise that Marvel has rebooted into their shared universe, joining a long list of IPs that include Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Captain America, The Hulk, The Punisher, Nick Fury, Daredevil, Elektra, Man-Thing, and soon, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. The title character, Eric “Blade” Brooks, was first introduced in the pages of the action-horror comic The Tomb of Dracula as one of many hunters of who targeted the title vampire and his many underlings, although he did not have any superhuman abilities at first. In the 1990s, the R-rated film trilogy starring Wesley Snipes caused Marvel to reinvent the character to be more consistent with the film adaptation, which reimagined the character as a dhampir (half-vampire) with all of the strengths and none of the weaknesses of vampires (aside from having to contend with the usual bloodthirst, but that comes with the territory).
Blade is in development at Marvel Studios for a September 6, 2024, release date.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
