Mahershala Ali fans, Marvel fans, vampire-heads… We’re all desperate to get news about this new Blade movie that is looking more unlikely to get made by the day. Luckily, Black Panther alumni Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan took matters into their own hands and gave us the Blade prequel we didn’t know we needed.
What if we told you Killmonger’s ancestor was a vampire and maybe even Blade’s Maker? And Kate Bishop’s great-grandmother was involved in some way… We’re still ironing out the details, okay? But this is our pitch to make Coogler and Jordan‘s upcoming movie Sinners an official part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since we’re beginning to get real pessimistic about the future of Blade.
Could Sinners be the reason Blade hasn’t been able to get off the ground?
While we’re sure Coogler and Jordan — who are frequent collaborators and friends and have also worked together in both Creed and Coogler’s first movie Fruitvale Station — are eager to step outside the Marvel world and carve their own path in the industry with an original IP film, we’re afraid the crossover potential with Blade is just too great. And fans are noticing it too.
“So, Disney can’t get a Blade made, but Warner Brothers allowed for Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan to produce their own Vampire film that will “eventually” be owned by Coogler after a few years. This is a level of pettiness that needs to be seen to believe,” one media commentator astutely observed. Is this personal for the DC Comics parent company?
Others have theorized that releasing Blade so close to Sinners would have been a marketing nightmare and could be a reason behind the Marvel film’s strange delay. Delroy Lindo, who was announced as part of Blade‘s cast early on and then joined the Sinners ensemble, exited the former in June, right in the middle of production for the latter.
Sinners was ultimately pitched, sold, filmed, and promoted faster than Marvel could finish the Blade script or find a director. Six writers and two directors have worked on the project so far, though no filmmaker is attached to it at present, and it’s unsure whether the most recent draft — from the mind of loyal Marvel scribe Eric Pearson, who’s worked on nearly every Marvel film of the last decade — will be the screenplay’s final version.
The last we heard of Blade‘s status came from Feige himself, who reassured fans the studio was “so committed to [the movie] that we’re not going to make it until it’s right.” A recent report claimed Marvel would make a final decision about the film by the end of 2024. Keep in mind this film was announced in 2019, and originally given a 2023 release date, but at least Mahershala Ali and Mia Goth are still interested.
What we know about Sinners
Sinners was kept a secret for most of its production, and, for a while, all we knew was that it would be a “period thriller (some have said it takes place in the Jim Crow-era South) involving the undead,” per The Hollywood Reporter. Rumors of vampires were also rampant. Now, Warner Bros. has released its first trailer and it looks really good (albeit cryptic and confusing — as any good trailer should be).
The official synopsis, shared on X by film reporter Erik Davis, says the film will follow twin brothers, both played by Jordan, who will try to “leave their troubled lives behind.” When they return to their hometown to “start again,” however, they discover “an even greater evil waiting to welcome them back.” Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, and Omar Benson Miller also star, with Jack O’Connell playing the villain.
Warner Bros. was the ultimate winner of a fierce bidding war for Sinners, which will hit theaters in the United States March 7, 2025. Back in May, we picked it as one of our most anticipated original movies releasing next year.
