In the past couple weeks, Marvel has been announcing a slew of exciting directors who have been hired to helm the studio’s upcoming big films. Candyman’s Nia DaCosta has been hired to helm Captain Marvel 2 and, on the Sony side of things, Booksmart’s Olivia Wilde is going to be behind a female-led Spider-Verse film. John Wick director Chad Stahelski has yet to move to the comic book genre, but he’d certainly be a great contender. And he’s all over one of the most mysterious projects in Marvel’s future if the studio came knocking. In Stahelski’s words:
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.
Looks like Marvel’s got their work cut out for them. Chad Stahelski’s Blade could be incredible. The filmmaker started off as a stuntman for the Matrix trilogy before turning to John Wick with David Leitch. Together, they’ve created a badass franchise bleeding with state-of-the-art action sequences that would be perfect for the Daywalker. Interestingly, he's also served as a stunt coordinator for several MCU installments.
Wait… but speaking of John Wick, the director just signed on to do not one but two sequels for the franchise that are expected to be filmed back-to-back in the near future. He’s also attached to a Highlander remake, a comic book adaptation about a suicidal college student who is saved by a demon called Kill or Be Killed, a fantasy about a supernatural vigilante called Sandman Slim and an action miniseries called Rain. Even though Blade would be awesome under his direction, it looks like he’s all booked up.
The filmmaker also said this to ComicBook.com about his interest in potentially moving to the world of Marvel:
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.
So you can count him among the casual Marvel fans. Many have been converted to the comic book culture in recent years, thanks to the quality of movies the MCU has set the bar for. A Blade movie was announced at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con without a writer or director in the mix. All we know is two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is going to play the vampire hunter.
The actor shared this piece of artwork of himself as Blade back in May:
A previous rumor indicated that Blade might be eyeing a fall 2022 release date, and we would assume it’s going to be part of MCU’s Phase Five. One detail knocking the return of Blade for many fans is the fact that it is likely to be a PG-13 adaptation. So the blood and gore levels might need to hold back more than the ‘90s/early 2000s franchise did.
Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more Marvel news! Meanwhile, you can check out the upcoming MCU slate here.
