MCU’s Blade Just Set a Marvel Record — For All the Wrong Reasons
Six years after Marvel trumpeted a Blade reboot, the Daywalker is still stuck in the shadows—reduced to fleeting cameos in Eternals, Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel Zombies, and a blink of What If…? season 3—while fresh delays keep his full return out of reach.
Marvel announced Blade six years ago, and we are somehow still in the waiting room. In the meantime, the Daywalker keeps popping up around the MCU without actually doing the one thing he is famous for: cutting down vampires. Here is where things stand, why it has taken forever, and what we have (and have not) seen so far.
Blade keeps showing up... just not doing Blade things
- Eternals
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Marvel Zombies
- A blink-and-you-miss-it tag at the end of What If...? Season 3
Fun? Sure. Satisfying? Not really. In the comics, Blade hunts vampires and tangles with heavyweight bloodsuckers like Dracula. So far in the MCU, the cameos have largely skipped the whole vampire-slaying part, which is kind of the entire point of Blade.
How we got stuck here
Marvel announced the Blade reboot in 2019 with Mahershala Ali set to star. On paper, great move. In practice, it has been a multi-year shuffle: directors on and off, actors joining and then leaving when development stalled, and release dates quietly moved or pulled from the MCU calendar.
It is supposed to be a clean, modern take on the character after Wesley Snipes first brought Blade to screens back in 1998. That film was directed by Stephen Norrington and hit theaters on August 21, 1998. Since then, the new movie has cycled through scripts and creative teams, which tends to mean older ideas get scrapped while everyone waits for the version that finally sticks.
Even Ali has hinted at uncertainty about where Marvel wanted to take it at various points. Officially, Kevin Feige says Ali is still in, the project is still moving, and they will only push forward once there is a script they actually believe in. Which is the right answer, even if it is not the fast one.
The cast shuffle we can see
One very public change: actor Aaron Pierre, who signed on in 2022, confirmed he is out now. His explanation was straightforward:
"It just took a different creative direction, and I was no longer a part of it."
The latest check-in
As of October 2025, Mia Goth told Elle that Blade is still in production, and the slowdown might be a blessing. She is playing Lilith, and her read on the delay was refreshingly honest:
"It’s for the best that it’s taken the time that it has. They want to do it right."
Big picture
The movie is not dead; it is just taking the scenic route. Ali is still attached, Goth is still aboard as Lilith, and Marvel seems determined not to shoot until the script is locked. While we wait, if Marvel wants to keep sneaking Blade into cameos, maybe let him actually fight a vampire next time. Radical idea, I know.