David Leitch Wants To Direct Mahershala Ali’s ‘Blade’ Reboot For Marvel Studios

David Leitch Mahershala Ali Blade Marvel Studios

Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch wants to direct Mahershala Ali’s highly-anticipated Blade movie for Marvel Studios.

Stunt coordinator-turned-director David Leitch is best known to comic book movie fans for directing Deadpool 2, but he’s also done a number of other action-packed projects, including John Wick and Atomic Bonde. With his latest movie Hobbs & Shaw now in theaters, David Leitch has his eyes set on another project: the recently-announced Blade reboot with Mahershala Ali.

While doing the press rounds for Hobbs & Shaw, David Leitch told ScreenRant that he’d like to direct Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot. During the conversation, David Leitch said that he loves the character and noted that he worked on the first-live action Blade movie starring Wesley Snipes.

“I love Blade. And it’s actually one of the first stunt jobs that I was in, the original Wesley Snipes one. I was a stunt performer in that movie. I was in the blood club. You remember that scene? Yes, dancing around in the recycled special effects blood. It was great.”

David Leitch then added that one of the main reasons he wants to do the project is two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, who’s attached to play the daywalker.

“Mahershala is such a great actor, and I’ve been fortunate to work with some great actors, and I never go wrong that way. Having him play that role is a big deal and would be really exciting. So, yeah, I would love to have that conversation.”

Details on Mahershala Ali’s Blade remain under wraps, but Kevin Feige has confirmed the reboot won’t be part of Marvel Studios’ Phase 4. The new Blade project is said to have come about after Mahershala Ali called Marvel Studios expressing his desire to play the character following his second Academy Award win for his performance in Green Book.

In Marvel Comics, Blade is also known as Eric Brooks, the half-human and half-vampire master martial artist whose mother was killed by a vampire during his birth. Since then, Blade has mastered his own fighting style to take on various types of monsters and rid the world of vampires. Wesley Snipes first portrayed the eponymous hero in 1998’s Blade and returned for the first sequel directed by Guillermo del Toro before making what is now his final appearance as the character in Blade Trinity. 

Stay tuned for the latest news on Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot and other future Marvel Studios projects.

Source: ScreenRant

Michael Bezanidis

Michael Bezanidis

Michael is the Managing Editor of Heroic Hollywood. When he's not playing video games, he's usually writing about film and television.