Yesterday, Variety published a bombshell report regarding the current state of the MCU including the behind-the-scenes issues that were happening in the development of the long-gestated Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali.
Aside from reporting that Ali almost exited the project following the various script issues, they also claimed that a previous draft of the script relegated Blade as the "fourth lead" and the story was going to be led by female characters and "filled with life lessons."
The revelation confused a lot of fans and wondered why Marvel Studios was considering a Blade movie that would have turned the titular character into the "fourth lead," especially with the caliber of Ali involved.
Now, one of the people who was previously involved in the project has chimed in and debunked the claims in the Variety report.
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Ex-Blade Writer Disputes the Claims Surrounding the Character Being the 'Fourth Lead' in the Script
In a recent post on X, Michael Starrbury, one of the writers who previously worked on the script for the MCU reboot of Blade, debunked the claims in the Variety report surrounding the character's reduced role.
He explained that none of the previous versions of the script that he saw reduced Blade to the "fourth lead" and the draft that he was involved in had him in 99% of the story.
"I worked on a draft of this before the strike. Never saw a version where Blade was 4th lead or it was a 'narrative led by women and filled with life lessons' but I suppose a lot could have happened since I had anything to do with it. He was in 99% of the scripts I was a part of," Starrbury wrote in his post.
Starrbury came on board to write the script for the film when Yann Demange was hired to take over as the director late last year. He was reportedly replaced by Nic Pizzolatto right before the strike.
Now, Logan co-writer Michael Green is currently penning a new script for the film according to the Variety report. He was presumably hired when the writers' strike ended in late September.
We cannot definitively say whether Variety's sources on that part of the report were wrong, but Starrbury's X post is definitely changing the fans' minds surrounding the story since it indicates that the "fourth lead" claims might not be true at all.
One thing's for sure, the development of the project has been a major struggle for Marvel Studios and the key creatives involved behind it. Hopefully, they will finally get it on track soon and the final results will be as promising as it was when the project was first announced.
Blade is slated for release in theaters on February 14, 2025.
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