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John Wick Director Says He’d Love To Tackle The Blade Reboot

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Blade reboot was the surprise announcement of last year's San Diego Comic-Con, but ever since then we've received virtually nothing about the project besides frequent teases of how leading man Mahershala Ali could look in the title role. There's still no release date, no director, no writers and no other cast members attached except the two-time Academy Award winning actor.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade reboot was the surprise announcement of last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, but ever since then we’ve received virtually nothing about the project besides frequent teases of how leading man Mahershala Ali could look in the title role. There’s still no release date, no director, no writers and no other cast members attached except the two-time Academy Award winning actor.

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However, because this is a high-profile MCU movie we’re talking about, there’s been plenty of rumors and speculation making the rounds about how Blade could cross over with the rest of the franchise and big name stars being eyed to play the villain, not to mention a possible return for original Blade Wesley Snipes in a cameo role.

Snipes’ Blade trilogy was very much a product of its time, relying heavily on the martial arts and leather aesthetic that dominated the action genre at the turn of the millennium, and whoever ends up directing the reboot will need to be careful to put their own spin on the material without shying away from giving fans the martial arts action that they want to see.

In a recent interview, action maestro and John Wick co-creator Chad Stahelski admitted that while he doesn’t have much interest in jumping on board an established franchise, he’d definitely be interested in taking a crack at Blade if the opportunity ever presented itself.

“As far as doing my own, I’m not a gigantic superhero guy, but I enjoy the movies. I love The Avengers. I loved Captain America. I like James Gunn’s take on Guardians. I really dig him as a director and what he’s done with that. Ragnarok, I felt was really funny. I thought that was clever. I’ve come around. If the opportunity ever came, I would like to take a stab at, the one that really jumps out to me would be like Blade. If they were going to redo Blade or something like that, just because I feel that one, for some reason, the vampire martial art action vibe. That would be a cool one to stretch and try and reinvent. I just like more of the original properties that you can grow from as opposed to step into a number five or a number six. That’s all. Just choice.”

Ironically, Stahelski’s John Wick co-director David Leitch has also revealed that he’d love to direct Blade, with the 1998 original marking one of the Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw filmmaker’s first major jobs as a stuntman. Now that Stahelski has also declared his interest, Marvel should definitely look into the possibility of having the founders of action design company 87Eleven team up once more to bring the Daywalker back to our screens.