Wesley Snipes pokes fun at Marvel’s troubled Blade reboot

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Wesley Snipes has joked about the ongoing chaos hindering Marvel’s forthcoming Blade reboot.

A new Blade movie was first announced by Marvel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. The reboot was originally set to be released in November 2023, but has been thrown off schedule by the departure of not one but two directors: Bassam Tariq in 2022 and Yann Demange just last week.

Snipes, 61, played the franchise’s titular character in a trilogy of films – Blade, Blade II and Blade: Trinity – released between 1998 and 2004.

The actor has called Marvel’s attempts at a reboot of the movie “kinda rough”.

Writing on X/Twitter, Snipes poked fun at the Blade remake’s high action elements.

“Blade, lordylordylordy,” he said. “Folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough. Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”

Blade is currently scheduled to arrive in cinemas on 7 November 2025. Demange leaving the project last week, however, makes it significantly less likely that production will begin in time to make that release date.

The film is set to star two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali as the vampire-hunting superhero Eric Cross Brooks, AKA Blade. Screenwriter Eric Pearson, who co-wrote Marvel’s forthcoming The Fantastic Four, istaking on the script.

The Blade reboot has previously been worked on by at least five other writers, including Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo, and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.

When Blade was first delayed by Tariq’s departure in 2022, Marvel suggested the filmmaker’s exit from the project was simply the result of a scheduling issue. There were, however, unverified rumors of further disruption behind the scenes.

Journalist Jeff Sneider claimed on Twitter that he had been told by someone familiar with the project that the script for Blade at that point was “roughly 90 pages” long, which is unusually short for a film of this scale. He also claimed that the script features just two “lackluster” action sequences.

“Mahershala [is] said to be very frustrated with the process,” he alleged. “[Marvel Studios boss Kevin] Feige said to be spread too thin. But hey, that’s just what sources are telling me.”

Last year, Ali told Entertainment Weekly that he remains optimistic about the film, saying: “I’m sincerely encouraged in terms of where things are at and who’s on board and who’s leading the way as far as the writing of the script and the directing and all that.”