If you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then you were definitely on cloud nine over the summer and in early fall. At San Diego Comic-Con, the team at Marvel Studios, including leading man Kevin Feige, dropped bombshell after bombshell for fans to outline the upcoming MCU slate. First, Phase 5 and some of Phase 6 were unveiled, leaving fans hungry for more information about them. Phase 5 starts next year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and it only gets better from there. You’d think there would be nothing out there that could stop Marvel from continuing to dominate, right? Well, not exactly.
In what seemed like a ripple effect yesterday, Disney and Marvel Studios revealed that multiple projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some of which were set to come out only a year from now, have been delayed, with one movie even being put on hold.
What movie would that be? That would be the upcoming Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali. The film has been known to be in the works ever since Ali popped up at San Diego Comic-Con a few years back and shocked the world with his inclusion in the MCU. However, ever since then, things haven’t been going well. The movie quickly got a film director in Bassam Tariq and had a writer, which usually would be enough to get the movie up and running. The film was set for a November 2023 release date. But that threw many off because the film hadn’t even begun filming yet!
Reports that the film was going through issues due to “production shifts” sprouted from the script. One piece even said that the script for the movie was just 90 pages long and had only two action sequences. But, of course, considering the Daywalker is known for his brutal fights against vampires, that wouldn’t do. So, sure enough, Tariq left the movie, and the script is said to be getting an overhaul.
As a result, Blade is now on pause and currently scheduled for a September 2024 release date, but whether that remains its release date is anyone’s guess. As stated previously, this caused a ripple effect, and now other MCU movies have also been pushed back.
Deadpool 3, which had just gotten its release date, is now coming out in November 2024. Fantastic 4 will make its MCU debut in February 2025, an untitled MCU project got hit back to November 2025, the big Avengers: Secret Wars event movie was shot to May 2026, and one untitled project was removed entirely from the schedule!
Naturally, fans are upset about this because the MCU only had to deal with such delays during the pandemic, which was fine and explainable. But this one feels different. We’ll be keeping our eyes on things going forward.
Source: Variety
