In an effort to “trim the fat” the upcoming Blade film for Marvel may have had to downsize one major role quite substantially. Kit Harrington first entered the MCU as Dane Whitman, Sersi’s love interest in Eternals, in a post-credits scene fans were teased with the sight of the Ebony Blade alongside the voice of Mahershala Ali’s since-confirmed Blade. Fans came to believe they would be seeing more of the pairing together in Blade, but that may no longer be the case.
Ali will be taking on the titular role of Blade in the film, a half vampire half human, also known as Eric Cross Brooks. While we all believed that Harrington would also be back given how Blade made his vocal (if not physical) introduction in the MCU, the film has been through some worrying spots having lost and gained a director, had the release date pushed back, and even the script has since undergone a number of rewrites.
Over the course of these rewrites, it may be that the presence of Dane Whitman has been significantly reduced. Dane Whitman’s hero alter ego is called the Black Knight and he wields the Ebony Blade. In a conversation on the podcast The Hot One, industry insider Jeff Sneider brought up the fact that things seemed to have improved in regard to the pre-production for the 2024 film Blade. He said,
“Someone reached out to say that with Blade, things have gotten a little bit better. Things have shaped up, the script is leaner and meaner and they cut out the fat, but the script I heard about was like 87 pages like there wasn’t enough and they’d shaved it to the bone.”
This cutting down seems to come at the expense of Harrington’s character as he continued,
“What they’d cut out I heard is that Blade was gonna tie-in with Eternals and Kit Harrington’s Black Knight. Black Knight’s not really involved in the Blade thing anymore. They may be recasting a few parts including maybe the daughter, was there like a 14-year-old girl? They may recast that.”
There have been rumors swirling that the Blade film will serve as a prequel, so it will come before the events of Eternals. This could explain why Dane Whitman is going to have less of a presence, as they could go quite far back given Blade’s immortal lifespan. We could instead meet Dane’s uncle, the previous Black Knight who was less of a hero and more of a villain and this could also explain the Blade’s connection to Dane in the future as he keeps tabs on the Ebony Blade.
It is still pretty early days, and rumors are far from being any solid evidence. With more than a year to go until Blade is set to be in theatres and production yet to even get underway a lot could still change.
