‘I had to quit that job, I smelled it pretty early’: The director who declined Marvel’s most cursed movie jumped ship before it even started sinking

At this rate, maybe the Marvel Cinematic Universe is better off just not making Blade at all, seeing as the tortured reboot has burned through a cavalcade of writers, scripts, story ideas, and release dates since first being announced, and it still isn’t anywhere close to shooting.

The Daywalker’s long-awaited return is already on its second director after Bassam Tariq dropped out to be replaced by Yann Demange, with Albert Hughes revealing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he too was in talks with the studio over an unnamed project, which was confirmed to “rhyme with glade.” As he put it, though, he wasn’t interested in compromising his principles for the sake of a shot at superhero glory.

“I’ve been in talks with the obvious studio about superhero movies a couple of times, but I always felt uncomfortable because I knew it was a system. And I got, halfway, not very close, halfway through the process, and I go, ‘No, I would implode from the kind of controlled nature of that world and not being able to do what I do.’

And I don’t understand why a real filmmaker would want to be in that system. I understand why up-and-comers would, which they do a good job of. finding people at the right time. But I think I would implode. You never want to be somewhere you’re not truly wanted. You’re not truly wanted for what you do.”

Expanding further, he drew the line at being a director-for-hire, and in what’s even more telling given the ongoing Blade fiasco, Hughes noted that he knew very early on it was something he had no interest in lending his name to.

“So if you’re getting hired for you, and what you do and what you bring, I’ve been in a situation more recently where I’m getting poked and prodded, and it’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t really want what I do,’ That was checking a box for them, and this is not going to work out. And it didn’t work out; I had to quit that job. I smelled it pretty early, and I said, ‘No, I’m not here for this.’

Well, this came out of ‘know who your daddy is,’ Your daddy has never failed: the producer who does this is the most successful producer in Hollywood history with the most successful studio in Hollywood history. So if I’m walking into that, I have to drop my ego and go, ‘Are you ready for this?’ Like, that’s Daddy, and Daddy’s gonna have some wants. So that was a process I had to go through.”

Maybe Blade will turn out to be one of those nightmarish productions that shocks the world by delivering the goods, but as sad as it is to say, the more likely scenario is that Hughes dodged a bullet.