Disney pulls Marvel’s Troubled Blade movie from 2025

Disney has removed troubled Marvel film Blade from its 2025 release schedule.

According to Deadline, Disney will instead launch 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands on November 7, 2025, Blade’s earlier release date.

As part of Disney’s release calendar update, three untitled Marvel films have a release date: February 18, 2028; May 5, 2028; and November 10, 2028.

The delay to Blade comes as no surprise considering the behind-the-scenes drama it has undergone. News came out about that director in June Yann Demange had left the projectwho will see Mahershala Ali plays the titular vampire slayer should it eventually get off the ground and go into production.

Even original Blade actor Wesley Snipes joked about Marvel’s reboot after the most recent setback. X/Twitter to throw some shade. “Blade, Lordylordylordy people are still looking for the secret sauce, riding snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough,” Snipes wrote. “Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”

Snipes previously played Blade in the original 1998 film and its two sequels, but has supported the reboot in the past. He earlier noted Ali took on the role in the upcoming film, where he insists that there was no bad blood over the decision and that he doesn’t feel angry about passing the baton to the actor.

Ali still wants to play Blade, but the road to releasing the reboot has been a rocky one. Demange’s departure marked the second time someone left the director’s chair Bassam Tariq previously relinquished the role due to a scheduling conflict that came to light before the movie was set to begin filming.

A report from the time claimed as much Ali was frustrated with the film’s progresswhich no doubt irritated him even more production comes to a standstill shortly afterwards. The film’s development then started to pick up Demange came on boardbut this pre-production work paused again due to the writers’ strike in May 2023.

In June, Mia Goth assured fans that “care” was taken to “make a great movie.” The script that was supposed to be shot last year reportedly featured Goth playing a vampire villain named Lilith who wanted the blood of Blade’s daughter, but the film was set to be released soon. a new script this summer.

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, which saw Snipes reprise his role as Blade in cameo form, was a huge hit, earning $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office.

In May, Disney boss Bob Iger said Marvel Studios will stick to a somewhat limited schedule for its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) projects, with no more than three films and two shows per year. Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps are already scheduled for release in 2025. Avengers: Doomsday will be released in 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027. It remains to be seen how Blade fits into that.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].