Oh, well, there’s always next phase: Marvel Studios has paused production on its hotly-anticipated Blade reboot, according to The Hollywood Reporter. As a result, Disney has pushed the film back from its original November 3rd, 2023 premiere date to September 6th, 2024.
The decision will disappoint Blade fans, though it doesn’t come as a total surprise; the star-crossed project lost director Bassam Tariq just weeks before filming was set to begin in November. As the search continues for a replacement, crew members were notified Tuesday of the pause on production.
According to one source, “They want to really get it right.” Filming is expected to pick up in 2023.
Blade’s shift in dates has caused a cascading effect on the rest of the MCU’s Phase Six. September 6th, 2024 was originally the date for Deadpool 3, which has instead switched to November 8th. That bumps Fantastic Four to February 14th, 2025. The biggest bummer might be Avengers: Secret Wars, which was originally scheduled to release just six months after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (May 2nd, 2025) on November 7th, 2025, but will now drop a full year after that first movie on May 1st, 2026.
The vampire-hunting action flick will star Mahershala Ali as Blade alongside Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre. It was originally announced as part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but was pushed back to Phase 5 as it underwent several rounds of rewrites. The latest draft was scripted by Beau DeMayo, a writer on The Witcher and Marvel’s Moon Knight. The current crop of Phase 5 projects is scheduled out through November of 2025, so it would take even more bad luck for Blade to land in Phase 6.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include news about Marvel’s release date shifts.