Marvel’s “Blade” Reboot Starring Mahershala Ali, Comes To A Production Halt Due To Writers Strike 

Marvel’s “Blade” Reboot Starring Mahershala Ali, Comes To A Production Halt Due To Writers Strike

Marvel’s latest reimaging of their uber-successful ‘Blade’ franchise has been cut short… for now.

According to sources, preproduction on the highly-anticipated film (led by celebrated actor Mahershala Ali) was recently paused amid the ongoing writers’ strike.

As previously reported, thousands of Writers Guild of America members have banded together and walked out on some of Hollywood’s most famed studios due to unfair contractual negotiations with their screenwriters. As a result, many have decided to boycott the offices, resulting in the industry’s first controversial “picket party” since 2007.

When speaking on the matter of poor compensation, a statement from the union read:

“From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television to the creation of a ‘day rate’ in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing an entirely freelance profession.”

‘Blade’ is the newest to be affected by the petition. The vampire thriller was supposedly scheduled to begin filming in June. Reportedly, Mahershala Ali and the rest of the cast were notified of the abrupt delay this week.

The blockbuster’s overhead is looking to pick back up with the project once the strike has concluded. However, this isn’t the first time ‘Blade’ has seen trouble with its production plans.

Last year, the superhero flick, which also stars Delroy Lindo, Aaron Pierre, and Mia Goth, was pushed from its initial 2023 release to 2024 after its then-director Bassam Tariq backed out of the job.

The ‘Blade’ reboot was announced in 2019. Recently, ‘True Detective’ creator Nic Pizzolatto had been brought on to re-pen the Yann Demange-directed script but “ran out of time” before the shutdown.

Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, Wesley Snipes starred in the original movie trilogy from 1998 -2006. Rapper/actor Sticky Fingaz (aka Kirk Jones) took on the role in the television series. The storyline followed vampire slayer Blade and his mission to get revenge on the species that were responsible for his mother’s demise.

Aside from the halt of ‘Blade,’ late-night phenomenons ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ and ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ were also forced to pull the plug as a result of the writers’ strike.

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