The wait for the MCU Blade movie has been a lengthy one. First announced in 2019, the film has been delayed time and time again after initially hoping to get the film out the door in 2023 with a fresh take on the eponymous vampire originally played by Wesley Snipes. Part of that has to do with a revolving door of creatives that has seen the film go through a total of at least five writers and two directors. Marvel chief Kevin Feige has since gone back to the drawing board yet again and this time, his plan involves doing something Marvel hasn’t considered in a long time – lowering the budget.

In a wide-ranging piece from Variety about the chaos within the current MCU, it was revealed that there were plans to make Blade on a budget of less than $100 million. That would be almost unheard of for the superhero franchise considering the almost astronomical production costs of just about every film in the franchise. Even when the brand experiments with films like Eternals, they couple it with a massive budget north of $236.3 million USD. In 2023 alone, the costs have been astronomical, making bombs like Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania all the more costly for Disney. The upcoming The Marvels doesn’t appear able to buck the trend either, as it’s tracking to make nearly half of what Captain Marvel did domestically in its opening weekend at the domestic box office with $75 million – $80 million. It would need to reach around $439.6 million USD to break even, let alone turn a profit.

A smaller budget may be exactly what Blade needs to finally get on track, especially since Feige has now found a strong combination of creatives to get things underway. He brought aboard Logan writer Michael Green to help fix the script and, most notably, managed to retain Oscar winner Mahershala Ali despite his apparent desires to quit altogether at one point. The WGA strike shut things down in pre-production back in May, but since studios reached a deal with the union, there’s room to continue working on the project to get cameras rolling soon after the SAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end. 2025 is now the target date to finally bring the vampire back to life.

‘Blade’ Rewrites Have Completely Shifted the Narrative of the Reboot

Variety also offered a glimpse into just how chaotic rewrites were and why Feige felt it necessary to go back to the drawing board. According to those close to the writing team, the script at one point relegated Blade to a fourth lead which seems like an odd choice considering the hiring and heavy marketing of a heavyweight talent like Ali. The film was apparently packed with life lessons with a narrative spearheaded by a woman. Needless to say, it would’ve been a huge risk and likely wouldn’t have sat well with fans hoping to see the character given the spotlight again for the first time since 2004.

There are still concerns about where Blade is going. Fans are understandably worried that the hero will be confined to the PG-13 trappings of the MCU. Feige has hinted as much, saying back in 2021 that he felt that, outside of Deadpool 3, there were no stories they had planned that couldn’t be done justice with a lower rating. More questions about the film are certain to be answered as work continues to finally pull the film out of development hell.

Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the Blade reboot film. Check out our full guide on everything we know so far about the project and the people who’ve been attached.

via Collider