As the company continues to develop the Blade movie while extending its hunt for a new director, Marvel Studios has temporarily halted production-related operations in Atlanta. The deadline can confirm this.
On Tuesday, Marvel informed the local Atlanta crew that work will resume in the first quarter of 2023. Originally scheduled to begin filming in November and debut on November 3, 2023, the movie is now almost certain to miss that date.
The announcement comes after Bassam Tariq, the project’s initial director, left two weeks ago, leaving Marvel to blame for “continuous adjustments in our production timeline.” The studio will now attempt to expand its pool of candidates before going forward, even though at the time it seemed like Marvel had agreed on a new director who could step in swiftly to maintain the film’s original production timeline.
Based on the character developed by author Marv Wolfman for the 1973 film The Tomb of Dracula No. 10, Blade is a vampire adventure thriller that will also star Delroy Lindo, Aaron Pierre, and Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. A half-mortal, half-immortal who hunts vampires to exact revenge on his mother, who was murdered by a vampire as she gave birth to him, the eponymous character was previously brought to life on cinema in a trilogy that debuted in the early 2000s and starred Wesley Snipes.
The next movie, one of Marvel’s most eagerly awaited since it was revealed at Comic-Con 2019, was written by Beau DeMayo (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Moon Knight). As an executive producer, Tariq will continue.