Blade Reboot Has a Huge Surprise, Or Marvel Made a Huge Mistake
Either Marvel just made a huge mistake, or Blade fans are in for the surprise of their lives!
It looks like — provided it wasn’t intentional — someone working for Marvel just made a huge mistake. The only question is what exactly the mistake was, because either someone at Marvel got bad information, or we’re getting the Blade reboot a lot earlier than we expected.
As Collider reports, earlier today the official Marvel India Twitter account posted a series of upcoming Marvel movie release dates all the way through 2022. It included the expected dates for Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Marvels. What sent shockwaves throughout the web was that it also included a release date for the Blade reboot — Friday, October 7, 2o22. The original tweet was deleted, but Collider provided a screenshot from before it went down. You can see it below.
So what are the chances we can believe the Blade reboot will actually hit theaters by next October? Well, let’s look at it.
On the “Believe the Date” side of things, this would seem like a strange mistake. It isn’t as if someone just made a typo. Someone prepared a graphic with the logo for the Blade reboot knowing that the movies they’d be announcing would only go through the end of 2022, meaning they presumably had some reason to believe that would be the year of Blade‘s release. Then there’s the date itself. October would be a fitting release date for a more horror-themed Marvel movie, which is why both installments of Sony’s Venom film franchise have been released during that month. And October 7 is a Friday, which is usually when Marvel movies — or any movies for that matter — premiere in theaters.
Before you buy it, though, take note that the “Don’t Believe the Date” side of the scale is pretty heavy too. First, there’s the simple fact that we’ve heard so little about the project. We know Mahershala Ali will play the eponymous lead, Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) is directing, and Staci Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen 2019) is writing the script. That’s it. In comparison, we have more solid info about The Marvels which is over a year away. Second, in May Marvel Studios (via NME) announced the film schedule for the Blade reboot was being pushed back to July 2022. This may be the most solid reason to believe there’s no way we’ll be seeing Blade next October. Principal photography in July for a release in October? That’s a ridiculous turnaround time for a Marvel movie, most of which are filmed a year ahead of time. Do you want Henry Cavill mustache gaffes? Because this is how we get Henry Cavill mustache gaffes.
Of course, it’s possible Marvel changed the film schedule for the Blade reboot again without making an official announcement, though that would seem strange. It isn’t like Mahershala Ali is a guy with a light schedule. In September it was announced, per Deadline, Ali was replacing Denzel Washington in the upcoming Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind. And his Apple drama Swan Song — on which he’s pulling double duty as star and producer — is set for release this December. Now seems like a strange time to surprise Ali with a ramped up film schedule for a big budget action film.
So far there’s been no official word from Marvel confirming or denying the release date of the Blade reboot. Until there is, we’ll just have to enjoy speculating and theorizing, like Marvel fans do all year round.
