The highly anticipated live-action Blade film has been stuck in development limbo for quite some time, a situation that unexpectedly forced the creative minds behind the animated series, ‘Marvel Zombies,’ to completely rethink their approach to the character.
During a recent interview, Brad Winderbaum, who oversees streaming, television, and animation at Marvel Studios, revealed that the ‘Marvel Zombies’ mini-series was originally conceived under the assumption that a live-action Blade movie would have already been released.
However, as many fans know, the live-action Blade film starring Mahershala Ali faced repeated setbacks and delays, despite several attempts to move it forward. This prolonged uncertainty eventually compelled Winderbaum’s animation team to adapt their vision for Blade, resulting in the unique ‘Fists of Khonshu’ iteration seen in ‘Marvel Zombies’ today.
A glimpse of this new take on Blade can be seen in the official trailer for ‘Marvel Zombies.’
Winderbaum candidly admitted, “We never, in a million years, thought that the Zombies show would come out before a live-action Blade.” He reiterated that their initial development was based on the premise of the movie being released much earlier.
He described the animated series being the first appearance of Blade in the MCU as a “surprising privilege.” This unexpected turn led them to portray Blade as ‘The Fists of Khonshu,’ a creative decision made to avoid conflicts with the evolving live-action plans. This provided the animation team with greater creative freedom for the character.
By fusing Blade’s essence with that of Moon Knight, they successfully forged an original character, granting them more liberty in storytelling.
Although Winderbaum didn’t directly state that the original ‘Marvel Zombies’ concept included Mahershala Ali’s Blade, it’s implied that concerns about conflicting with any live-action version led to this unique animated interpretation. This led to the fascinating “Blade Knight” mash-up of Blade and Moon Knight, brilliantly voiced by actor Todd Williams, who has previously lent his talent to series like ‘Invincible’ and ‘Starfield’. This fresh take on the character immediately captivated audiences in the series’ debut trailer.
This discussion comes amidst ongoing speculation about surprising character omissions in upcoming Avengers and Marvel projects.
Initially announced in 2019 with a planned filming start in 2022, the Mahershala Ali-led live-action Blade movie has faced persistent production challenges. To date, Ali’s only contribution to the MCU has been a brief, off-screen voice cameo in ‘The Eternals’ during a post-credits scene.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige recently confirmed that after years of pre-production and exploring “three or four” distinct versions, they have finally settled on a modern-day setting for the much-anticipated Blade reboot.
However, Feige remained vague about a concrete release timeline for the live-action Blade. With a packed schedule featuring ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘Avengers: Secret Wars,’ and future projects like ‘Black Panther 3’ and the ‘X-Men’ reboot, he stated there was currently “no sense of urgency” to fast-track Blade’s cinematic debut.
The insights shared in this article were gathered from an interview conducted by Jim Vejvoda. Tom Phillips, IGN’s News Editor, contributed to this report.