Little is known about Marvel Studios’ plans for Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is hardly surprising considering Phase 4 hasn’t kicked off yet. It has, however, been confirmed that Blade will make his return to the big screen during the franchise’s fifth chapter, and a third outing for Deadpool following Disney’s Fox merger has been widely reported to be in the works.
Given that Marvel has officially announced Blade and even unveiled Mahershala Ali as the actor who will play him in the MCU, it seemed a safe assumption that the daywalking vampire will return to cinemas before the Merc with a Mouth, but a new report has cast doubt on this.
Pouring over revised release dates and previous comments from MCU head honcho Kevin Feige, MCU Cosmic claims that Deadpool 3 could be released before Blade. Given that Blade was originally tipped for release in October 2022 to coincide with Halloween, it could well be the case that Deadpool 3 is further along in development than we previously thought.
After all, Ryan Reynolds has been vocal about his desire to reprise his role as the Mouthy Merc, and reports suggest that he’ll co-produce Deadpool 3 alongside Feige. In fact, we already know that the project is in active development and now coming together behind the scenes.
Although Blade has a lead actor in place, there’s currently no director attached to it and there haven’t been any substantial updates since Marvel rolled out its Phase 4 schedule last summer. With this in mind, it’s certainly possible that the comic book powerhouse could fast-track Deadpool’s MCU debut in a move that would see his third solo outing land in cinemas before Blade. This would put Deadpool 3 on course to arrive in the next two-to-three years.
As things stand, the MCU’s fourth phase will get underway in November when Black Widow hits cinemas. Stay tuned for further updates though as Marvel’s roadmap for 2022 and beyond begins to take shape.
