The Walt Disney Company has officially removed Marvel Studios’ Blade from the 2025 release slate and replaced it with a new non-franchise movie.
MCU’s Blade Removed From 2025 Schedule
The tormented production of Blade has officially been scrapped from the 2025 release slate. Initially slated for 2024 and then for early November 2025, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade effort starring Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) has lived in development hell for years.
With a constantly changing mix of writers and directors, the latest being Yann Demange, who recently exited the project, the superhero studio just cannot seem to get Blade right.
Since it entered development in 2019, Stacy Osei-Kaffeur, Bassam Tariq, Michael Starbury, Michael Green, and Nic Pizzolato have all been attached in writing and directing capacities. On the casting front, Mia Goth (Pearl) is set to star alongside Mahershala Ali.
“For the last few years, we’ve been trying to crack that movie,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said in an interview with Black Tree TV earlier this year.
“I think the most important thing for us is not rushing it and making sure that we’re making the right Blade movie because there were some great Blade movies years ago.” Feige is, of course, referencing the trilogy featuring Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks/Blade released by New Line Cinema in the late 90s and early 2000s.
With the troubled production, Feige’s recent comments, and an omission at San Diego Comic-Con, Blade‘s fate was all but sealed, and yesterday, October 22, the hammer came down.
“In what comes as no surprise, Marvel Studios’ Blade won’t be coming out on November 7, 2025; rather, Disney is opening 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands,” Deadline wrote.
Predator: Badlands will follow 2022’s Prey, with Dan Trachtenberg returning to helm this new entry in the Predator franchise. Disney-owned 20th Century Studios will distribute the movie, and so far, only Elle Fanning (Maleficent) is attached to star in the action-horror.
Blade fans, while satiated with Wesley Snipes’ return to the big screen in this year’s billion-dollar hit Deadpool & Wolverine, will surely be disappointed that the daywalker won’t enter the MCU anytime soon. That said, there are multiple open slots across 2026 and 2027, including a similar early November date where Blade will likely find its home.
Alongside the February and November dates over 2026 and 2027, Marvel Studios has confirmed three new movies for 2028. The release dates locked in are February 18, 2028, May 5, 2028, and November 10, 2028. These will seemingly be part of the initial wave of Phase Seven movies following Avengers: Secret Wars, which drops in May 2027.
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The Blade development turmoil comes as Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed a new stringent release policy for the franchise: no more than three movies and two TV shows per year.
Earlier this year, the House of Mouse executive revealed stricter rules for the MCU franchise. Marvel Studios will no longer have free reign to release as much content as they wish. Disney will now cap the yearly output at three films and two Disney+ television shows.
This decision, coupled with a creative overhaul of the television sector and Brad Winderbaum’s confirmation of a “new system” at the studio, follows what has been one of the MCU’s most challenging periods to date.
Related: Report: Marvel Cinematic Universe Dropping Film and TV Shows for Rumored New Project
In keeping with Iger’s new rules, Blade‘s removal from the 2025 slate does leave just three movies on the schedule. Phase Five will be completed with Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World and Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* in February and May, respectively, while Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: The First Steps will commence Phase Six in late July.
Spider-Man 4 will not be released, but it will begin filming next year. Tom Holland confirmed the next Spidey flick earlier this week, telling Jimmy Fallon that the fourth entry in the MCU’s Spider-Man franchise will begin filming in 2025.
How do you feel now that Blade‘s fate has been confirmed? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!