In what comes as no surprise, Marvel Studios’ Blade won’t be coming out on Nov. 7, 2025, rather Disney is opening 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands.
The reboot of the famed Wesley Snipes Marvel movie was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 with 2x Oscar winner Mahershala Ali starring. Production and development on Blade hit unavoidable delays with a global pandemic and dual industry strikes.
The project saw two directors exit, first Bassam Tariq, who was eyeing a fall 2022 start, then Yann Demange. Mia Goth is set to play supervillian Lilith in the vampire slayer movie. She told Deadline’s Natalie Sitek at the world premiere of her A24 movie MaXXXine, that in regards to the Blade delays, Marvel “really care, they do. They want to make a great movie. That’s the sense that I get from them and that feels good.”
For Marvel Boss Kevin Feige, it’s important to make the best Blade movie ever. The studio won’t make the movie until they’ve cracked a great script. In the meantime, Snipes had a cameo as Blade in the highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.3 billion).
The Blade movies are arguably the first R-rated superhero set of movies. Launched in 1998 by New Line Cinema, the other two titles in the trilogy were 2002’s Blade II and 2004’s Blade: Trinity, altogether grossing $418.1M at the worldwide box office, unadjusted for inflation.
In addition, three untitled Marvel movies are dated for Feb. 18, 2028, May 5, 2028 and Nov. 10, 2028.
Dan Tratechenberg, who directed the previous Predator movie, Prey, which went to Hulu, is back for Predator: Badlands, the latest installment starring Elle Fanning. There was debate that Disney left money on the table by taking Prey straight to homes, and indeed, the reversal here indicates their continuing commitment to theatrical in the post Bob Chapek era of the studio. The first Predator opened in the summer of 1987 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, directed by John McTiernan. It grossed close to $100M WW. All in, the Predator franchise counts six titles, that’s including two Alien vs. Predator movies, with a global take of $750.6M.