It’s open season on all suckheads, as Marvel has tapped Yann Demange as the new director of Blade.
The French filmmaker is known for executive producing and directing episodes of both HBO’s beloved but short-lived Lovecraft Country and UK crime drama Top Boy. On the full-length feature side of things, he helmed 2018’s White Boy Rick and 2014’s ’71.
Demange replaces Bassam Tariq, who left the production in September just weeks before filming was scheduled to start. While Tariq is set to remain as an executive producer, Kevin Feige and his team decided not to try and skate up hill with a flailing production, instead hitting pause while they went for a complete reset.
Mahershala Ali is still onboard to star as the day-walking vampire hunter, but Demange isn’t the only new creative joining the project. Screenwriter Michael Starrbury — Emmy-nominated for penning an episode of Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us — will take a fresh crack at the script, the most recent version of which came from Beau DeMayo (Moon Knight). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ali himself had a hand in choosing Starrbury.
Together, Demange and Starrbury will be tasked with taking Blade in a “dark and gritty” direction that could be similar to the original 2000s Blade trilogy, according to THR. (Which begs the question: What were they going for before?)
Originally scheduled for November 2023, Blade is now targeting a September 6th, 2024 release. The shift caused a cascading effect on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Six entries, with Deadpool 3, Fantastic Four, and Avengers: Secret Wars all seeing their dates pushed.
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