Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: blade, mahershala ali, yann demange

Marvel's Blade Loses Yann Demange As The Director

Director Yann Demange and Marvel Studios have mutually parted ways, and Demange will no longer direct the upcoming Blade.

Somehow, Blade continues to be the Marvel property, having the hardest time making it to the big screen, even though we already know it works as a movie property. This isn't like Iron Man, Thor, or Captain America, where we're unsure if audiences would be interested in this concept; we know they are. They were interested enough for three movies, the first of which was part of the 1-2-3 punch that has given us the comic book dominance we live in today. They have an amazing leading man attached to the project, Mahershala Ali, and the project has been delayed and reworked several times. It looked like things might be getting off the ground recently, but that is not the case. According to The Wrap, director Yann Demange has mutually parted ways with Marvel Studios and is no longer attached to the project. Sources also say that Eric Pearson, who has worked on The Fantastic Four and many other Marvel projects, is working on the script.

While this latest development will be seen as a bad thing, according to the sources cited in the article, the parting is linked to Disney deciding that they could slow down and don't need to rush projects. They want to get Blade "right" instead of just releasing it, which isn't bad. That being said, this sort of development hell in the age of social media tends to follow productions like a bad smell, and it can be hard for them to shake it off by the time they make it to the big screen.

How Is It This Hard To Make Blade Work?

Blade is a production that has had some ups and downs with multiple writers and directors coming onto the project, and, despite having an incredible leading man with Ali, they couldn't nail the film down. In a 2023 article about Marvel Studios and how they are reacting to 2023 being a less than stellar year, Blade is a film that could see a cut in budget, dipping under $100 million. For the record, that is not a bad thing at all, and the budgets of these movies are out of control.

One of the main reasons Marvel and Disney, in general, struggled in 2023 was that films had insane budgets, and they would have to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars to even get out of the red. And the reality of a post-COVID-19 world is that very few films do that anymore. Not only do very few films pull in the kind of numbers that 2018/2019 movies did, but the only ones that can have to be good. There isn't any skirting by on decent. So, while many will see the dip in budget for Blade as a sign of impending doom, it isn't. It's a sign that people at Marvel and Disney are starting to realize that they have to budget these films like they will do in 2020 and beyond numbers, not 2018/2019 numbers, so slashing budgets across the board is a good thing for everyone. Blade currently has a November 7, 2025, release date.

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