Marvel’s Mahershala Ali-starring ‘Blade’ dropped from 2025 release schedule by Disney

Marvel sets that blade Film starring Mahershala Ali in lead role officially shelved.

According to multiple reports, Disney has dropped Blade from its 2025 release calendar. Instead, Disney bets Predator: Badlands in his place. The film was originally scheduled to hit theaters on November 7, 2025.

bladeThe development standstill is only getting more intense as Marvel adds more films to its 2020s release schedule. Three untitled films are now scheduled for February 18, 2028, May 5, 2028 and November 10, 2028.

The new development around blade reflects many of the behind-the-scenes shakeups of Marvel projects that have taken place in recent years.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in July 2023:

“There were some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to have done better,” he told CNBC, according to Variety. “From a personal perspective, that’s not a problem, but I think in our effort to essentially expand our content significantly to primarily serve our streaming offerings, we ended up putting a lot more strain on our people – in terms of their time and their focus beyond where they had been.”

“Marvel is a great example of this. They were not involved in the television business to any significant extent. Not only did they increase their film production, but they also ended up doing a bunch of TV series, which frankly diluted the focus and attention,” he continued. “That means I think more about the cause than anything else.”

As a result, Iger announced Disney’s new strategy for Marvel in a quarterly 2024 earnings release. He said that Marvel and Disney overall will “reduce production and focus on quality.” However, he added that this strategy is “particularly true at Marvel.”

“We will slowly reduce the volume and probably broadcast about two television series per year instead of the current four, and reduce our film production from maybe four to two or a maximum of three per year,” he told Variety. He also added that he feels “great” about the slate of upcoming films and that he has “decided to invest more and more time into Marvel’s output strategy.”

“I have great confidence in the team and the intellectual property we are collecting, including any sequels we make, is second to none,” he said.

Feige told Empire in 2024 that he sees the reduced production as a good thing, citing Marvel’s ability to focus solely on that year’s blockbuster Deadpool and Wolverine as a sign that Marvel can once again focus on quality over quantity.

“It’s nice to be able to support a single feature project this year,” he said. “I feel much more comfortable being the underdog. I prefer to surprise and exceed expectations. So it looks like last year, which wasn’t ideal, set us up well for that.”

It seems so blade was one of those films announced as part of Marvel’s previous strategy of creating a flood of expectations around many new projects. And given the amount of rewrites and turnover among directors and cast, including Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre, that makes sense blade would be removed from the release schedule until Marvel can be sure there is a strong story and team behind it.

Feige told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in July that Marvel was still “committed to the film.”

“We’re so committed to this that we won’t be able to get it right until it’s true. “It was frustrating for us and some fans because it took a while,” he admitted. “We have a writer working on it now. I’m halfway through reading his new draft and it feels good so far.”