The new “Blade”, with which the Daywalker should make his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just doesn’t have it easy. Already announced in 2019, pre-production issues and some lineup changes behind the scenes (especially in the director’s chair, where “Lovecraft Country” director Yann Demange will take the place of indie filmmaker Bassam Tariq) recently caused massive delays even impacting the rest of the MCU, where all kinds of start dates for upcoming projects had to be postponed.
After the successful change of direction and the engagement of shooting star Mia Goth for the female lead, it actually seemed that “Blade” could finally enter the hot phase of pre-production without any further problems to do everything for the fore June 2023 in preparation for the start of shooting. But now he does current writers strike in Hollywood, this project initially put a spanner in the works. Again has reportedly halted pre-production on Blade effective immediately. It is the largest project directly affected by the strike so far.
Marvel-typical script changes are hardly possible at the moment
Some people might be surprised that taking down the work of the authors demanding fair payment still has an impact on a movie that is scheduled to start shooting as early as next month. However, if you look at the usual screenwriting process in much of the film industry, the problem becomes somewhat clear. Particularly in the blockbuster realm, it’s common for the script to be in full swing until then (and even beyond), even if the shooting date has been set. In the case of Blade, they even recently hired True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who was supposed to revisit the script but just didn’t have the time.
With other upcoming Marvel projects already filming (like Captain America 4: New World Order and WandaVision spin-off Agatha: Coven Of Chaos), it looks even more important. Because especially with productions of the comics forge, the script is often still diligently worked on during the recording – from minor changes to the addition of important key scenes.
Perhaps the most glaring example from the recent past is the mega-hit “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, in which the writers largely revise the third act during ongoing production due to the deal with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield for her Spider – The man’s comeback was completed only more than a month after the start of filming. Such a massive adjustment would not be possible with the current author strike.
And what can happen when you have to do most of the production with an unfinished script was shown during the previous writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008, including the much-maligned blockbusters “Transformers 2” and “James Bond – Quantum of Solace”. One can only hope that the impact on the mentioned Marvel projects and the loud The “Deadpool 3” and “Thunderbolts” movies, which are still scheduled to start in May and June respectively, don’t turn out to be quite as drastic.
Will the next wave of MCU shifts follow?
The loss of authors could be offset a bit by an exemption that’s been in place since 2020, allowing producers or directors to make at least minor changes to dialogue and narration to ensure a story doesn’t go completely off the rails. On the other hand, all adjustments that go beyond should be avoided – or, as in the case of “Blade”, one waits for the battle to begin, which, on the one hand, because of the running costs and on the other hand for new problems in the MCU already worked out to 2026 roadmap could provide.
In the constantly expanding Marvel movie and series universe, the individual contributions are known to build on each other (sometimes stronger, sometimes less strong), so that the Postponing one project often results in postponing all subsequent projects has. As mentioned at the beginning, this has already happened with the previous “Blade” delays. Whether it will happen again and we will also see the “Avengers” doubly slated as the pinnacle of the current Multiverse saga “Avengers 5: The Kang Dynasty” (scheduled theatrical release: April 30, 2025) and “Avengers 6: Secret Wars“ (scheduled theatrical release: April 29, 2026) can only be seen later, now depends entirely on how long the writers’ strike lasts and the start of filming with “Blade” may be delayed because of this.
There’s still some buffer, as “Blade” won’t hit theaters until September 4, 2024. (which is currently still being held). If it takes the same amount of time to reach an agreement that will satisfy everyone, as it did in 2007’s three-plus month strike, it’s going to be hard to keep this and the other MCU dates. So it remains exciting when Oscar winner Mahershala Ali will finally succeed Wesley Snipes as a vampire-hunting bloodsucker-human hybrid on the big screen.