‘Blade’ Pulled from Disney’s 2025 Schedule

Disney dates the next "Predator" movie in its November slot instead.

Marvel‘s “Blade” has been delayed yet again. Disney has removed the plagued superhero-vampire movie starring Mahershala Ali from its 2025 release slate entirely.

The prior update had “Blade” due to open on November 7, 2025, but that won’t happen anymore. Instead, we’ll be getting the next movie in the Predator franchise, “Predator: Badlands,” on that date.

For now, “Blade” isn’t on the Disney release schedule at all. But Marvel did put three new generic placeholder dates — February 18, 2028, May 5, 2028, and November 10, 2028 — on its release calendar on Tuesday.

This “Blade” has been a real thorn in the side of the generally reliable Marvel and Kevin Feige. Feige recently said they’ve been spending the last few years “trying to crack that movie,” and that the important thing now is “not rushing it.”

The film has dealt with the exit of two different directors and multiple different screenwriters, and production was postponed both because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the later writers strike. Some of the actors have departed the project amid all the chaos. “Blade” first meant to open on November 3, 2023, so this delay makes it more than two years late from when it was meant to arrive.

News of a reboot of the films originally starring Wesley Snipes date back to 2019 when Feige first announced the project with Ali set to star. The character was teased at the end of 2021’s “Eternals,” but that’s the last we’ve heard from him. Audiences did see the return of Snipes’ Blade in “Deadpool and Wolverine,” in which Snipes-as-Blade said “there ain’t gonna be another Blade” — so far he’s been right.

Ali got the moral support of Snipes, saying that the delays for the film shouldn’t be pinned on the actor.

“It’s not the actor’s fault,” Snipes recently said. “There’s a lot more that goes on with pulling this ‘Blade’ stuff off. You need a lot of secret sauce to do the ‘Blade’ thing, man. Good luck. You’re my man, though.”

Earlier this year, Ali earlier joined the cast of the next “Jurassic World” film, so production on “Blade” will (at least) have to wait until that movie is completed.

For now, no director is attached to “Blade.” But Ali remains, and “MaXXXine” star Mia Goth is also involved as supervillain Lilith. The current draft of the script comes from Eric Pearson, who co-wrote Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four,” which is shooting now and is on pace for release on July 25, 2025. It’s one of three Marvel movies still opening in 2025, including “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts.”