Marvel got as far as giving Mia Goth a wig to wear for its 1920s Blade movie idea, before the setting was scrapped and the project was placed on hiatus.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard just how close Marvel’s big Blade reboot, set to star Mahershala Ali in the title role, got to being made several years ago, but it is yet another suggestion that whatever happened to cancel the 1920s-set attempt happened very late in the process.
“The furthest that it got with me was… I flew to Atlanta and did a chemistry test with Mahershala,” Goth said, speaking on the Josh Horowitz podcast. “I did a costume fitting and a wig fitting. I was very excited in the direction it was going and Mahershala had such an interesting take on it, he was great. And it just unravelled from there, unfortunately.”
For its part, Marvel has said it still plans to make a Blade movie eventually, with Mahershala Ali in the title role, and Goth still attached. But the studio has also confirmed the movie’s story would now be set in the present day, if and when the project actually does go back into production.
“I don’t know what’s going on with that,” Goth said when asked about Marvel’s plans for Blade going forward. “I think that they want to make it, and it’s such an important film for them that they’re taking their time with it. I really don’t have any information, I don’t know why it’s taken the time it has. But we will see… we will see.”
Alongside Mia Goth’s wig, fans know that a full wardrobe of clothes was made for the film’s supporting artists, which were ultimately sold on. Bizarrely, these ended up being used in another period vampire movie, Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed Sinners.
Marvel announced it was making Blade back in 2019, and confirmed that Mahershala Ali would feature as a new version of its infamous vampire hunter, previously played by Wesley Snipes. But, more than six years later, the project is still nowhere near filming, and there’s a sense that Marvel is simply busy with other, bigger projects.
Following a mixed response to its most recent Multiverse Saga, Marvel is now focused on a series of sure-fire hits for the next few years, including two Avengers movies plus fresh outings for safe blockbuster fare such as Spider-Man and X-Men.
Exactly why Blade fell apart at such a late stage has never been publicly stated, though it was reported that director Yann Demange left the project in June 2024, several months before Marvel finally pulled the film from its release schedule.
“We’ve landed on modern day,” Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige said in an interview this summer, acknowledging that Blade’s script had so far gone through “three or four” different incarnations, two of which were period pieces. “We didn’t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production,” Feige continued, discussing why the project had been pushed back. “We didn’t feel confident that we could do that on Blade, and we didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”
Meanwhile, Wesley Snipes reprised his role for a cameo in last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds has said he wants Snipes’ classic Marvel movie hero to get a send-off film akin to Hugh Jackman’s Logan.
Image credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
