Marvel's Blade: A 1930s Script That Almost Made It

Marvel’s much-anticipated Blade reboot almost made it to the cameras. Costumes were designed. Scripts were written. The movie had reached late pre-production. And then it was quietly shelved. According to insiders and indirect confirmations, the version of Blade that was almost filmed was set in the 1930s — a period setting far removed from the interconnected chaos of the present-day Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The only official word on the matter from Marvel boss Kevin Feige was that the studio didn’t believe the script had the right level of quality to move forward. Feige didn’t elaborate further. No press conference, no formal cancellation. Just a polite acknowledgment that Blade is still “very much being planned” as part of Marvel’s Phase 4 and Phase 5 roadmap.

But then something unusual happened.

In an interview promoting Sinners — a Ryan Coogler-directed supernatural thriller set in 1930s America — the production team revealed that they had sourced some of their film’s period-specific costumes from Marvel. These costumes, according to multiple production staff, had originally been designed and fabricated for a now-stalled Blade movie. This offhand admission, buried in press interviews for an entirely different film, ended up revealing more than Marvel’s own statements did.

At one point that movie was going to deal with, and she’s talked about this before, but at one point that film was going to deal with the past around the same era as ‘Sinners.’

— Sev Ohanian , Producer (Sinners)

That Blade reboot, now seemingly frozen in development limbo, would have been a very different Marvel movie. Set in the 1930s, it would have left behind the MCU’s usual parade of superhero cameos and timeline connections. No Doctor Strange. No Spider-Man. Not even Kit Harington’s Black Knight or Mahershala Ali’s future take on the Daywalker himself in a modern setting. This was a standalone vampire noir — atmospheric, slow-burn, and almost certainly not built for Marvel’s usual interconnected universe.

And that might have been the problem.

A vampire story set in the 1930s is a stylistic gamble. The gothic elements, the period style, the potential inclusion of Dracula as a central villain — all very different from the CGI-heavy, quip-filled blockbusters that audiences have been trained to expect from Marvel. It also wouldn’t have had the nostalgic muscle of Wesley Snipes’ Blade trilogy to carry it forward. As much as fans claim to love the Snipes version, most casual viewers aren’t clamoring to return to a darker, bloodier, more isolated style of superhero storytelling.

Then there’s the weight of what critics call "superhero fatigue." Modern moviegoers are increasingly disinterested in sprawling cinematic universes where each new film requires hours of homework. Who’s alive? Who’s been recast? Is this Loki from Earth-199999 or Earth-838? And why does none of it feel like it matters?

A standalone Blade movie could have sidestepped all that — but in doing so, it may also have distanced itself from the marketing lifeline that Marvel films rely on. Without direct ties to current MCU heroes or multiversal events, the project would’ve had to stand entirely on its own. And maybe it just wasn’t strong enough to do that.

The timing also couldn't have been worse. Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts (also known as the New Avengers) have not been the box office juggernauts Marvel hoped they’d be. Reception has been middling, at best. Budgets are ballooning. Interest is waning. And studios are now less likely to greenlight scripts just for fan service or to milk the brand name.

With the 1930s script rejected, Blade now returns to the drawing board. A modern setting is likely, something that brings the character back into the fold of the current MCU timeline. Cameos are all but guaranteed. There’s also a strong chance that Marvel will lean into Mahershala Ali’s already announced casting, possibly giving the character a launchpad in another film or series before committing to a solo entry.

But the story of the nearly-made Blade movie — the one with handcrafted 1930s vampire hunter costumes and a Dracula that likely wouldn’t have drawn a crowd — is now just another “what could have been” in the ever-growing stack of Marvel false starts. And it's a reminder that even one of the most unique characters in Marvel’s catalog is not immune to the studio’s fear of creative risk in an increasingly cautious blockbuster era.

Meanwhile, Sinners marches forward with the visual DNA of that discarded Blade film woven into its costume design. It’s a fascinating case of cinematic inheritance — a movie that may unknowingly preserve the last remnants of a Marvel film that came within inches of existence before vanishing into the vault.

For fans, it's both frustrating and intriguing. The Daywalker still waits in the wings. But if and when Blade finally returns to the big screen, it’ll likely be in a form far more familiar than the dark, moody, period-set version that almost was.