Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Loses Second Director as Yann Demange Exits Film

Another one bites the dust.

Filmmaker Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) is no longer set to direct “Blade,” Marvel Studios’ long-in-the-works reboot of the vampire superhero franchise set to star Mahershala Ali. This is the second director to leave the project; Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”) exited the production in 2022.

Insiders say Demange departed the film amicably weeks ago, as development on the project has stretched over multiple years. Screenwriter Eric Pearson, who co-wrote “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel, is the latest scribe to take on the “Blade” script, after at least five other writers have taken passes on the film, including Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo and Nic Pizzolatto.

While Marvel has not officially moved “Blade” off of its Nov. 7, 2025, release date, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the project will be able to start production in time to make that date. The next four Marvel films on Disney’s release calendar — “Deadpool & Wolverine” in 2024 and “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four” in 2025 — are all either completed, nearly completed or well into production. And Disney CEO Bob Iger’s statement in an earnings call on May 7 that the superhero shingle will release “a maximum of three” movies a year has further alleviated the pressure for Marvel to crank out titles before they are fully baked.

Marvel first announced a new “Blade” movie at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, after Ali met with Marvel chief Kevin Feige to pitch himself to headline a reboot of the franchise first led by Wesley Snipes in a trilogy spanning from 1998 to 2004. Far more of a classic horror character than other Marvel protagonists, Blade (aka Eric Brooks) possesses many of the powers of vampires without their weaknesses, especially daylight, which he wields in his mission to rid the Earth of the undead blood-suckers.

In December 2023, Ali told Entertainment Weekly that he was optimistic about the reboot’s creative trajectory following its eventful development process.

“I’m sincerely encouraged in terms of where things are at and who’s on board and who’s leading the way as far as the writing of the script and the directing and all that,” Ali said.

The news of Demange’s exit was first reported by TheWrap.