Marvel Studios has plenty of interesting projects over the horizon, but I'm still shocked that one of those projects is a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali (True Detective) as the legendary daywalker. It was announced earlier this year that Stacy Osei-Kuffour, who worked as a story editor and writer on HBO's Watchmen series, had been tapped to write the Blade reboot for Marvel Studios, and now Deadline has reported that the film may soon have a director as well.
According to Deadline, Bassam Tariq, best known for Riz Ahmed's Mogul Mowgli, is currently in talks to direct the Blade reboot. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Mahershala Ali, and other studio executives have been meeting with possible directors since last fall, with a short-list of directors making final presentations to the producers as recently as last month, but Deadline states that Tariq's take on the film "ultimately won all parties over."
Production on Blade isn't expected to get underway until July 2022, and Kevin Feige has previously stated that the film won't be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 that kicked off with WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, Loki, and the recently released Black Widow.