It's official: Blade is back! At San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios revealed that Marvel’s resident vampire hunter is getting a reboot in the MCU, with Oscar winner Mahershala Ali attached to star as the Daywalker. The film is in the early stages, but now that we know it’s coming, the attention turns to who will direct the film, and some fans immediately pegged Jordan Peele as the best candidate.
While he’d be a fun choice, sorry, Jordan Peele isn’t interested in directing Blade or any big franchise movie for that matter. The director made that clear, saying:
It’s a filmmaker’s dream. But you know, I feel like I only have so much time. I have a lot of stories to tell, and it just doesn’t feel right. It just doesn’t feel right.
Jordan Peele sees the appeal of tackling a big franchise movie like Blade and completely understands what a dream come true the opportunity would be for so many people to work on these beloved properties. It sounds like he’s even tempted by the prospect himself, but as he tells Rolling Stone, it just doesn’t feel like the right move for him.
Even though he is only two films into his filmmaking career, the director of Get Out and this year’s Us feels as though he only has so much time to make so many movies, and for whatever reason it doesn’t feel right to him to use that time on franchise movies like Blade. He simply has many other original stories that he wants to tell that take precedence.
That doesn’t mean that Jordan Peele is anti-franchise movies though, or that he has no interest in being involved with them at all. That’s evident in the Candyman reboot that he’s producing. He spoke about the difference, saying:
Candyman was one of my favorites. As a director, if I was going to do any pre-existing property it’d be something like that. But I just feel like, look let’s help tell the story, but save my directing ventures for these stories that are my originals. I don’t know a better way to say it.
Elsewhere in his interview with Rolling Stone, Jordan Peele says that while he appreciates comic books and graphic novels, he’s not a true fanboy. Therefore directing one of those properties like Blade doesn’t mean as much to him. Conversely, Candyman is one of his favorite movies, so he wanted to be involved with that. But it is still only as producer and writer, and not as director.
If Jordan Peele were to direct a franchise film, it would be something of that nature, which I take to mean a property that he really cares about. But his plan is only to help tell the story on certain franchise films and not to direct them, which rules out Blade. Although it is interesting that he was once rumored to want to make a Gargoyles movie. Perhaps he only wanted to write and produce that.
Jordan Peele makes it quite plain that he only wants to actually direct his own original movies based on his own stories. This is a bummer for fans that thought his horror instincts would be a good fit for Blade, but if it doesn’t feel right to him, not only should he not do it, but we shouldn’t want him to. I want someone who loves Blade, cares deeply about the material and has a compelling take on it to direct Blade, not someone who isn’t feeling it.
Jordan Peele is also only two films into his career and he’s probably still bursting with ideas. His opinion on directing franchise films may change as he gets older, but for now we should relish the fact that he is making wholly original movies that are actually finding success in today's franchise-dominated market.
Imagine if we took Quentin Tarantino, another director who writes and directs his own films, and after Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, he started doing franchise movies. Would it have been cool? Yes, but we may also never have gotten Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds. and Django Unchained. Now that Quentin Tarantino is supposedly coming to the end of his career though, he is pondering jumping to franchise films for Star Trek, so always in motion the future is.
Marvel has a knack for finding the right directors for the right projects, and I’m sure that whoever directs Mahershala Ali in Blade will do it justice; it just won’t be Jordan Peele.
We’ll keep you updated on all the latest about Blade and the MCU as we move into Phase 4 and be sure to check out our premiere guide to see what’s hitting theaters this year.
