Bassam Tariq will direct Mahershala Ali in Marvel’s new Blade movie

Marvel is bringing us a Blade movie for a new generation, with Mahershala Ali in the lead role and Mogul Mowgli director Bassam Tariq behind the camera.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and eventually…Blade. Marvel has a lot of movies in the hopper, and one of the most exciting is the return of the half-vampire-half-human who fights other vampires, played by Wesley Snipes in the ’90s and Mahershala Ali in the upcoming reboot.

And now, according to Deadline, Marvel is closing in on a director. Although it’s not finalized yet, it looks like Bassam Tariq will helm the new movie.

Up until this point, Tariq is best known for working with Riz Ahmed on the critically acclaimed Mogul Mowgli, about a British-Pakistani rapper diagnosed with a degenerative autoimmune disease. Tapping the 34-year-old Tariq fits with Disney’s strategy of developing up-and-coming talent, similar to how it gave Taika Waititi’s career a big boost when it hired him to direct Thor: Ragnarok after his indie hit Hunt for the Wilderpeople — considering how much Waititi has blown up in Hollywood, the strategy looks like it’s working.

Bassam Tariq will also be the sixth person of color to direct a Marvel movie, following Waititi, Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), Chloé Zhao (Eternals), Destin Cretton (Shang-Chi) and Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige having made it a point in recent years to diversity things both in front of and behind the camera.

There’s no official release date for the new Blade movie yet, but look out for it in 2023.

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