Marvel Studios is known for its solid grasp and careful planning of whatever unfolds in the superhero world, even accounting for Sony’s own Spider-Man plans. However, a recent post involving Blade could have thrown the MCU into disarray.
It’s a fact that Disney and Marvel Studios currently have a solid pipeline in place to push Phase Four into completion, with movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the Fantastic Four carrying the MCU well into 2023, or possibly 2024 for the latter. Nevertheless, one noted vampire killer was missing in that scenario. See, both Blade and Deadpool were not considered to be part of Phase Four, yet this possible leak could be hinting otherwise.
The post in question was shared on Twitter by the official Marvel India account and it consists of what looks like some pretty official poster artwork outlining plans from here on up until 2022. Naturally, this includes the very long Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and sitting there right before The Marvels, an October 7, 2022 release date for Blade, which it appears to have been taken down now.
Most interestingly, October 7 is the release date set for Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse 2, which would make Blade's slot even more puzzling, unless India gets the animated Spider-Verse on a different date. Also, considering the Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t included in the titles that are close to their premiere, it’s obvious the poster is a Marvel Studios only promo, meaning Blade could really be coming as soon as fall 2022.
There is a chance this could have been a mistake from the Indian Marvel branch, yet since it’s not a case of a simple typo but rather a full logo with a date that doesn’t match any other of Marvel Studios' movies, it appears the odds of it being an editing misplacement are rather low. Even so, such a relatively close release for Blade seems rather unlikely given that very little is known about the movie, other than the fact that Mahershala Ali will play the vampire hunter for a screenplay written by Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour.
As of now, it’s not even known if Blade will follow Deadpool's mature rating footsteps in order to honor the grittier tone the franchise commands. However, if this is anything like the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man leak, then get ready to slay some vampire next year.
Marvel Studios' Blade is currently in development.
Source: @Marvel_India | Twitter