Marvel's Blade Halts Production As WGA Strike Continues

Marvel's "Blade" reboot starring Mahershala Ali is now the first major studio feature film to pause due to the WGA strike. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit and Aaron Couch, the production was supposed to start filming in Atlanta next month but will now hold until after the writer's strike is resolved. 

You may remember that as recently as April 28 we heard that the studio had hired yet another writer to take a crack at the script, and a very interesting writer at that. Nic Pizzolatto, the creator of "True Detective", was brought on board in a surprising move by Marvel Studios, surprising because it was so close to filming and because Pizzolatto is a very distinctive writer who has a reputation around town as sticking to his creative guns in a way that often doesn't jibe well with the very collaborative process at Marvel.

It was an exciting development, to be sure, and when you add in Ali as the titular "Blade," a half-human, half-vampire anti-hero, and "Lovecraft Country" director Yann Demange at the helm, this project had a lot of geek ears perked up.

What's really interesting, however, is what this pause illuminates about the current development status of the film. Disney halting the production isn't an act of solidarity with the WGA. Far from it. What it most likely means is that the script for "Blade" still needed a lot of work before the studio started rolling cameras.

Marvel has multiple productions going right now, like their upcoming shows "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" and "Wonder Man," as well as the feature film "Captain America: New World Order." They also expect both "Deadpool 3" and "Thunderbolts" to start filming within the next month. 

The picture this paints is that "Deadpool 3" and "Thunderbolts" are in solid states with their scripts and that Marvel Studios doesn't anticipate needing any rewrites. Not so much with "Blade." 

For whatever reason, it seems that the studio is having a hard time nailing down this movie. It's understandable to a degree, because "Blade" is a bit of a left turn for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We saw how "Morbius" turned out for Sony and it's safe to say Kevin Feige and his cohorts don't want something similar to happen with "Blade." Also, it should be noted that there's already a definitive pre-existing cinematic version of the character, which hasn't been true of almost any of the MCU films up to this point (Spider-Man being the exception).

Going forward, however, the WGA strike is going to be a bigger challenge for Marvel as they aim to fold "The Fantastic Four" and "X-Men" into the larger MCU.

This is the first major impact the WGA strike has had on a big production and it likely won't be the last. "Blade" was slated to hit screens September 6, 2024, but Disney is almost certainly going to push that date.