Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures announced on Tuesday (October 11) that it will be pushing back the release dates for numerous upcoming Marvel films including Blade, Fantastic Four, and Avengers: Secret Wars. Following the departure of Blade's director Bassam Tariq from the project in September due to scheduling conflicts, Marvel has decided to temporarily shut down production of the film to search for a new director.
Blade is now scheduled to hit the screens on 6 September 2024 instead of its original 3 November 2023 release. This has made a big impact on the rest of the studios’ production scheduling. The release of Deadpool 3 has moved from 6 September 2024 to 8 November 2024, Fantastic Four has been shifted from 8 November 2024 to 14 February 2025, and Avengers: Secret Wars has been pushed from 7 November 2025 to 1 May 2026.
Throughout the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Multiverse), stories have been intertwined and a significant delay from one film often impacts the slate for others. A similar postponement was made for the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to the pandemic and led to Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever being pushed back as well.
A source that is well versed with the studio’s plans stated that Marvel is using Blade's production break to find a replacement for Tariq to work with Moon Knight writer Beau DeMayo, who is the main screenwriter for Blade. The Marvel Blade character first appeared in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula, written by Marv Wolfman in 1973. At first, he had his own storyline that was later adapted into the Wesley Snipes film trilogy which includes, Blade, Blade II, and Blade Trinity.