Marvel taps Lovecraft Country director to helm new Blade movie

With star Mahershala Ali helping to select a new writer and Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange’s on board as director, the new Blade movie is back on track.

It’s not always easy maintaining an densely interconnected cinematic universe full of buff guys in spandex. For instance, Marvel has been trying to get a Blade movie off the ground for a while. It’s hired Oscar winner Mahershala Ali to play the titular vampiric vampire hunter, but ran into trouble in September when director Bassam Tariq left the project over creative differences.

What’s a historically successful movie studio to do? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel knew that it wasn’t a matter of shoving a new director into Tariq’s spot and going forward with the story they had; Blade needed a from-the-ground-up rewrite. With that in mind, Ali helped select a new writer in the Emmy-nominated Michael Starrbury. And now they’ve brought on a new director: Lovecraft Country veteran Yann Demange.

Lovecraft Country was a terrific show that was both very entertaining and that took an unflinching look at some of the ugliest parts of American history. In addition to his work on that show, Demange is also developing an HBO series based on David Cronenberg’s classic horror flick Scanners. There’s no questioning the talent of the people involved here.

Word is that Marvel wants the Blade movie to be on the edgier side of life, perhaps in a way that dovetails with the Wesley Snipes Blade movies from the ’90s and ’00s. Despite the shake-ups behind the scenes, the new Blade movie is still set to release in theaters on September 6, 2024.

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