At 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con, not only was it revealed that a Blade reboot is in development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we also learned that Mahershala Ali would succeed Wesley Snipes as the silver screen Daywalker. While the new Blade movie has been taking big steps forward this year, there hadn’t been any casting updates… until today. Word’s come in that The Harder They Fall actor Delroy Lindo is being lined up to join Ali for the MCU flick.
According to THR, Delroy Lindo is in final negotiations to join the Blade reboot, though no details were provided on the character he’d be playing. Should all the paperwork be signed, this would make Lindo’s first comic book movie, though not his first time working in the comic book media space. He was previously set to star as Dominic Fortune in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff Marvel’s Most Wanted, but after the pilot was shot, ABC decided to pass on a series pick-up. Suffice it to say that Blade is much bigger Marvel-related platform for him to shine on.
Delroy Lindo can currently be seen playing Bass Reeves in the Revisionist Western The Harder They Fall, his second Netflix movie following Da 5 Bloods. That 2020 movie marked Lindo’s fourth collaboration with director Spike Lee, with the two having previously teamed up on Malcolm X, Crooklyn and Clockers. Lindo has also kept busy in recent years playing Adrian Boseman in The Good Fight, serving as a series regular in its first four seasons and guest-starring in Season 5.
It’s hard to say at this point who Delroy Lindo could be playing in the Blade reboot, although a logical guess would be the mentor to the title character. When Blade first appeared in the comics, this position belonged to Jamal Afari, who was Harlem’s vampire slayer and taught Eric Brooks how to kill these monsters. The Wesley Snipes-led Blade movies, however, decided to fill the mentor role with a white character named Abraham Whistler, who’d previously shown up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series and was played on the big screen by Kris Kristofferson. If Lindo is starring in the reboot as a mentor to Mahershala Ali’s Eric Brooks, it’s unclear if he’d be Jamal or a Black version of Abraham.
There’s also the possibility that Delroy Lindo could star in Blade as a villain, but either way, it’ll likely a while until his role is revealed to the public. Behind the scenes, Mogul Mowgli’s Bassam Tariq is directing the reboot and the Watchmen TV series’ Stacy Osei-Kuffour is writing the script. The new Blade movie is reportedly expected to begin filming in late summer 2022, but there was a little groundwork laid for the character recently.
We’ll keep you apprised of more Blade updates as they trickle in, but for now, catch up on past MCU flicks over on Disney+ and learn what else the superhero franchise has in the works with our upcoming Marvel movies guide.
