Marvel Studios just put a stake through the hearts of every fan of the Daywalker when it announced that the much-mocked Blade reboot wouldn’t release in 2025, after all. This wasn’t much of a surprise, given that it wasn’t even shooting yet, had only two people in its cast, and no director, but it was still a bummer as it seemed to confirm the vampire hunter wouldn’t be appearing in the MCU next year as expected.
That’s what we thought, anyway. As it turns out, the character will make his first appearance in the franchise — outside of the Wesley Snipes version brought back for Deadpool & Wolverine — in a certain project hitting Disney Plus in about 12 months’ time. It’s not where we were anticipating the MCU’s version of Blade to make his debut, but beggars can’t be choosers, so we’ll take it. Especially as it looks to be one of the weirdest crossovers Marvel’s yet delivered.
Blade to return to the Marvel multiverse for the MCU’s next foray into the horror genre, coming Halloween 2025
Thanks to the mind-blowing Marvel sizzle reel that teased what’s due on Disney Plus over the next calendar year, we know that Marvel Zombies is coming to munch on our brains — sorry, for our brains to munch on — next October. If you take a closer look at the footage from the upcoming What If…? spin-off, you can even catch a glimpse of Blade himself, but not as you’ve ever seen him before.
In the screenshots above, you can see that Blade will feature in Marvel Zombies, but it will be a variant of Eric Brooks who, in this reality, is Moon Knight. Something like this had been reported before, but now we can confirm its truth thanks to the evidence of our own eyes. The only hitch is we don’t yet know whether Mahershala Ali will voice the character or if a soundalike will be brought in. If they bring Snipes back for this one, it will be the funniest thing Marvel’s ever done.
Fans are having all kinds of reactions to this extremely unexpected turn of events. For some, Blade becoming the Fist of Khonshu is the stuff Marvel dreams are made of.
Meanwhile, those who predicted Blade would hit the MCU in 2025 are feeling mighty pleased with themselves right now.
We live in the strangest timeline.
Marvel’s still struggling to make the simple premise of “guy hunts vampires” work, but we’ll take zombie-hunting Blade in the interim.
This Marvel Zombies news isn’t cutting through everyone’s hardened cynicism, however. “About as much Blade as the MCU will have,” was how one savage reply put it.
Clearly, there’s something in the water at Marvel HQ, as the House of Ideas seems a tad obsessed with wild Moon Knight variants of late — see the recent What If…? about Marc Spector becoming Venom. But, hey, we’re not complaining. Over what will be six years on from the announcement of an MCU Blade, the character will finally have more to his name than an audio cameo in the Eternals post-credits scene. Give it another six years, and we might finally see the movie.