This weekend finally sees Chloe Zhao’s MCU debut with Eternals after multiple delays due to the pandemic and brings the Jack Kirby characters to the big screen alongside Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, aka, The Black Knight Knight.
Without getting too deep into the other big post-credit scene, a second one features Whitman and another unseen character that is only heard. Director Chloe Zhao has now confirmed to Fandom that this character is indeed Mahershala Ali’s Blade, who will lead his very own solo film directed by Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli).
Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) is by himself, staring at a case with his family crest on it. Dane has to psych himself up, saying “You can do this, you can do this,” before he opens the case and reveals a sword inside, as an eerie sound briefly erupts from within the case. Dane translates words inscribed on the inside of the case, reading “Death is my reward.” He looks down at the sword, which has some sort of strange, liquid-like movement rippling across it. As he prepares to touch the sword, Dane declares, “I’m sorry, I have to try,” only to be interrupted by the voice of a man, who we don’t see, but who says to Dane, from off-camera, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”
“That was the voice of one of my favorite superheroes, Mr. Blade himself. Blade, Blade, Blade, yeah,” Zhao tells Fandom confirming Blade’s cameo in the post-credit scene.
This isn’t a huge revelation as Mahershala Ali’s Blade was announced all the way back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and the reboot movie is said to begin production next year, potentially for a release date in 2023/2024.
However, Eric Brooks’ interest in the Ebony Blade or preventing Dane from using it is unclear, but it’ll be interesting to see if Blade/Brooks will be showing up in other projects before his solo film. Then again, Brooks has been known to get involved with all sorts of occult heroes and Black Knight would technically be part of that group given the supernatural death curse attached to the Ebony Blade.
Could Blade be recruiting Whitman for The Midnight Sons?
Universal Pictures once attempted to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe with their horror franchise Dark Universe, that was expected to give the studio a PG-13 cinematic universe centered around their legacy horror characters, The Universal Monsters. When Tom Cruise’s Mummy reboot flopped they pivoted away from a connective group of films and seem to be instead focusing on movie by movie after The Invisible Man.
Marvel Studios is actually in a perfect position to do what Universal struggled to do, making their own horror universe within the MCU with both films and Disney+ series. We’re apparently going to see a huge push on the live-action side with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse, Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot, Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series, and plenty more things that have yet to officially announced.
There are plenty of characters that are assumed to be part of Marvel’s horror universe such as Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Blade (Eric Brooks), Moon Knight (Marc Spector), Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Elsa Bloodstone, Abraham Whistler, Hannibal King, Frank Drake, Quincy Harker, Rachel van Helsing, Vlad Dracula, Baron Blood (John Falsworth), Deacon Frost, Lilith Drake, Lenore DeCade, Mephisto, Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom), The Devil’s Daughter (Satana Hellstrom), Mother of Demons (Lilith), Glyph (Nadeen Hassan), Vampire By Night (Nina Prince), Warwolf (Martin Renya), The Living Mummy (N’Kantu), Frankenstien’s Monster, Manphibian, and Man-Thing (Theodore Sallis).
But there could be even more characters mined for Marvel’s horror corner of the MCU.
The animated series What If…? is bringing Marvel Zombies to the MCU and there is a character that could easily make the jump to live-action to represent the zombie faction.
That is Simon William Garth aka Zombie, who had his own run of comic books with Tales of The Zombie. The character that was brought back from the dead using voodoo magic has a direct connection to Doctor Strange pal Brother Voodoo and could easily partner up with the occult hero.
Zombie is also a member of the Legion of Monsters alongside folks such as The Living Zombie, Frankenstein’s Monster, and others. Given the popularity of the zombie sub-genre with The Walking Dead (alongside spinoffs) and Zack Snyder recently returning to the genre with Army of The Dead (will also direct a sequel), it’s a no-brainier for Marvel to give audiences/fans a zombie character.
There seem to be strong indications that we’ll see Marvel move forward with a new Ghost Rider project, however, we don’t know if they’ll simply focus on a single character like Johnny Blaze or cover the multiple incarnations of the character.
There is a new Native American version, Kushala, an Apache woman from the 1800s that is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance and became the Sorcerer Supreme of her era in attempt to cure herself. She goes by the name Demon Rider.
Adding Kushala could allow Marvel Studios to bring in a more diverse Ghost Rider to the live-action side of things and give us a solid Native American character that could get her own solo projects alongside someone like western hero William Talltrees aka Red Wolf. We’ve also seen Marvel use plenty of new characters lately as they slowly assemble the Young Avengers roster.
Speaking of Native American characters, there is someone that has a connection to Canadian indigenous lore that could make for a threat in the future and that is Wendigo.
The Wendigo is a stark white beast that is the manifestation of a curse for anyone who commits an act of cannibalism in the Canadian North Woods. A darker origin than normal for Marvel and anyone can be given the curse.
First appearing as a Hulk villain, the character has also clashed with Wolverine, X-Men, and Alpha Flight in the comics. Wendigo is sort of a mirror image of Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch, a mutant member of Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
Taj Nital was an Indian (Muslim but designed as Sikh) vampire hunter part of Quincy Harker’s team Dracula Hunters from The Tomb of Dracula comics, who dedicated his life to hunting vampires after his son Adri was turned and he had to kill him.
A friend of Blade, Taj is turned into a vampire by the monstrous Varnae aka Lord of Vampires that tragically had to be slain by Blade.
The Blade reboot will hopefully bring back The Vampire Nation and having vampires/hunters from Asian countries would help establish that their tentacles are international, something teased with the original Blade movie from 1998 showcasing diverse members of The House of Erebus.
Another cast member has reportedly joined Marvel’s new Disney+ series Moon Knight.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that veteran actor Ethan Hawke has landed a villain role in the superhero streaming show. They failed to mention what that role is but the two big contenders sound like Randall Spector aka Shadow Knight, brother of titular hero Moon Knight aka Marc Spector, and fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
Ethan Hawke might be most recognizable for his roles in action films Training Day and TheMagnificent Seven remake from 2016. He joins a slowly growing cast that consists of Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector and May Calamawy playing the female lead.
Marvel Studios has assembled a directing team that includes Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Filming is said to kick-off this March in Budapest, Hungary and we’ve heard that Disney+ is hoping it can be ready to begin airing on the streaming service in spring/summer 2022. Kevin Feige seemingly confirmed to Collider that the series is going to have six episodes similar to Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
We’ll have to wait and see if other superheroes will be crossing over in the show from the horror/supernatural corner of Marvel Comics.
THE RONIN 