Mahershala Ali's Blade movie to start filming next month, apparently

Among the various post-Avengers: Endgame projects Marvel has thrown against the wall over the last three years, few have been announced with more fanfare—and then more resolutely ignored—as Mahershala Ali’s Blade movie. Since he was announced as taking over the part, to rapturous applause, at Comic-Con back in 2019, Ali’s Blade has made exactly one appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: A one-line voice cameo in one of the after-credits scenes of last year’s Eternals.

Now, though, it sounds like Ali might finally be ready to kill some damn vampires (and, possibly, impart some new wisdom about motherfuckers always trying to ice skate uphill), with Total Film reporting that a production listing for the Blade movie has finally popped up on the Film And Television Industry Alliance’s Production List site, suggesting that filming on the movie will commence July 4 in Atlanta.

This is exciting news, in so far as the three previous Blade movies continue to maintain a warm reputation for a) serving as one of the first Marvel projects to ever get any kind of success in movie theaters and b) being weirdo gore spectaculars where ravers dance in human blood and people do wrestling moves on vampires. It doesn’t hurt that Oscar-winner Ali is reportedly super-passionate about the part; we’d genuinely like to see what he can do with the role of the half-vampire vampire hunter, beyond growling “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?” at Jon Snow and his magical sword.

So far, Ali is the only cast member who’s been announced for Blade, which also lacks a release date on the Marvel calendar. Bassam Tariq, whose most recent film credit was 2020's Mogul Mowgli, with Riz Ahmed, has been tapped to direct; Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour, best known for her work on HBO’s Watchmen series and PEN15, is set to write the script.