Marvel’s Blade reboot goes back to 2013 when The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a script (after the rights reverted from New Line Cinema) was being worked in-house at the studio as part of their writing program alongside Ms. Marvel (would later turn into Captain Marvel). Six years later and it was announced that two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Predators, Alita: Battle Angel, Luke Cage, True Detectives) would be starring in a brand new movie, In turn, officially rebooting the Blade franchise that was launched back in 1998 with Wesley Snipes.
This year it was revealed by trades that writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen, Hunters) is currently writing the film’s screenplay and Deadline first reported over the summer that Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) was the frontrunner to direct the reboot.
An excellent creative combination.
Eric Brooks aka Blade is a vampire hunter, that happens to be half-vampire himself and allows him to be immune sunlight/silver making him stronger than a majority of adversaries. The main antagonists for Blade are The Vampire Nation, the secretive group of shadowy figures that have a stranglehold on positions of power in human society and have sects all over the world.
With Marvel’s increased budgets, it allows this new incarnation of Blade became more of a globetrotting franchise and we could see vampires in various countries, we’ve seen Asian vampires teased in the original and it would be neat to see Blade in Japan, Hong Kong or….even they newly established island nation of Madripoor.
I would love to see Loki production designer Kasra Farahani work on Blade as he’s someone who I think could be the perfect person to help bring the world of the Vampire Nation to the modern MCU.
He brought such a cinematic value to Loki as it was cited that Faranhani was influenced by Mad Men and Ridley Scott’s benchmark sci-fi film Blade Runner. Kasra previously contributed concept art to Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, Star Trek into Darkness, and even the unmade BioShock movie (has Guillermo del Toro feel to it) for director Gore Verbinski.
It wouldn’t be the first time that someone from Disney+ series making the jump to the feature films as Loki cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw is officially working on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, giving that film a striking visual palate.
The Ronin has spotted that director Bassam Tariq (hasn’t officially closed his deal) is now following Farahani on Instagram, which could suggest there is a shot the production designer may indeed end up working on the Blade reboot, if Tariq signs on to direct.
You can check out of Kasra Farahani’s excellent work on the Loki series below.
BLADE – A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother’s death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special blood type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.
THE RONIN 