Source: Mike Coppola / Getty
One of the highly anticipated movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe just got a major addition to the roster, as the new Blade movie has added Delroy Lindo to its cast.
Lindo, who has been captivating audiences recently in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall as Marshal Bass Reeves, is set to be part of Marvel Studios’ reboot of Blade as reported in Variety. The 69-year veteran actor is the first to join the film after Mahershala Ali was booked to play the iconic vampire hunter, resulting in a triumphant announcement of the reboot in 2019 at the end of Marvel’s panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.
Lindo has been on a tear of late, also scoring critical acclaim for his performance in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods alongside the late Chadwick Boseman. His next projects include starring in the Neil Gaiman Anansi Boys series for Amazon and getting in the director’s chair for the first time with the film Jabari’s People.
His role is not confirmed yet and the studio offered no comment when contacted. However, there is speculation that Lindo could play the role of Jamal Afari. In the comics, Afari was the man who raised a young Eric Brooks who’d go on to become Blade, teaching him the ways of hunting vampires. In the 1998 film version, that character was renamed Abraham Whistler who would be played by Kris Kristofferson.
The reboot will be directed by Bassam Tariq, who previously directed Mogul Mowgli, the 2020 film about a British Pakistani rapper featuring Riz Ahmed. Stacy Ofei-Kuffour, who worked on the Watchmen television series for HBO, is the scriptwriter for the film. Sources estimate that the reboot will begin filming in the late summer of 2022. So far, Ali as Blade has only appeared in a voiceover role in a post-credits scene in Eternals, Marvel Studios’ latest release.
