MCU Reboot Canceled Again as Multiple Directors Ditch Marvel Franchise

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to flounder as it attempts a franchise-wide reboot, and directors are fleeing the series at a disturbing rate.

A large group of the Avengers making a stand in Endgame — Credit: Marvel Studios

Kevin Feige has been struggling to redirect the MCU in its post-Avengers: Endgame (2019) years, now that the franchise has lost Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Fully half of the original Avengers have apparently departed the MCU for good, though there is always the chance that the upcoming Secret Wars could drag anyone back into the fray.

Until then, Marvel Studios needs to figure out a way to keep audiences paying theater-price tickets and subscribing to Disney+. It hasn’t been easy, as seen by the dwindling box office grosses of movies like Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), and (2023), and the low viewership numbers of Secret Invasion.

Ravva in 'Secret Invasion' — Credit: Marvel Studios

And those are just the projects that involve established stars like Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, and Samuel L. Jackson. It has been even more difficult for the franchise to establish new heroes and villains, like Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and the Eternals, or to contextualize existing ones, like Anthony Mackie’s transformation from the Falcon into the new Captain America.

One would think that rebooting one of the best-known Marvel adaptation franchises from the pre-MCU years would be relatively easy, but that appears not to be the case. All the way back in 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Kevin Feige announced that Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali had been cast as the official Blade of the MCU, replacing Wesley Snipes as the beloved half-vampire/vampire hunter character.

Blade from Bethesda and Arkane Studios' Marvel's Blade video game, with back to viewer, pulling out blade from behind back — Credit: Bethesda, Arkane Studios

The character had a voice-only cameo in a post-credits scene of Eternals (2021), in which Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, AKA the Black Knight, approaches the Ebony Blade, an object of much mystical significance in Marvel Comics lore. Since then, development on a Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali has been going poorly, to say the least.

To date, the Blade MCU reboot has gone through at least five writers (that the studio has publicly announced) and has now lost its director for the second time (per Deadline).

Yann Demange, who was hired to direct the film in November 2022, has officially stepped away from the project, leaving the Daywalker in need of a new filmmaker to lead the story. Neither Demange nor Marvel has officially commented on why he may have left the project, but it is reported to be amicable.

Mahershala Ali in front of a painting with a crown on it in a red room — Credit: Marvel

Prior to Yann Demange, Bassam Tariq was slated to direct until production delays reportedly caused him to leave. The Blade reboot was originally to be scripted by Amma Osei-Kuffour, who has since been replaced by X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo (who has since been fired from that show himself), who was replaced by Michael Starrbury, then Nic Pizzolatto, and then Michael Green.

Reportedly, the story has been rewritten from page one at least once. At the same time, the MCU Blade reboot has lost supporting actor Aaron Pierre, indicating that the casualty list is getting higher and higher.

At this point, the only consistent thing about this reboot is Blade star Mahershala Ali himself. Hopefully, that’s enough for the MCU to get back on track.

Is the Blade reboot doomed at this point? Comment your opinion below!