Marvel Announce Blade Reboot With Mahershala Ali To Play Lead Role

Marvel is going to reboot Blade with Mahershala Ali set to take on the starring role.

The announcement was made during Marvel's Hall H presentation at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International.

The original Blade film was a massive hit for Marvel way back in 1998 and saw Wesley Snipes slip into the long black coat to play the eponymous vampire hunter.

Snipes then returned to the fold for Blade II in 2002 and for Blade: Trinity in 2004. This would never have been possible had Marvel not spent big to reacquire the rights to the series - as well as The Punisher and Ghost Rider - back in 2013.

So far all we know about the forthcoming Blade reboot is that it is going to happen, and True Detective and Luke Cage star Ali is taking on the lead role.

Ali also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Moonlight in 2016. In the process he became the first Muslim to win an Oscar for one of the acting categories.

If you're not massively au fait with the Blade series, the main character is a half human, half vampire called Eric Brooks.

He first tipped up in a comic book series called The Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973 in which he rescued a man from a group of vampires.

After that, he caught the bug and became a full time vampire hunter, taking out fanged freaks with a variety of weapons, although he ordinarily prefers to make use of his gigantic swords.

As well as the exciting announcement of Blade, Marvel also confirmed that Natalie Portman is to take up Thor's famous hammer Mjolnir for the fourth film of the Thor saga, which is to be entitled Thor: Love and Thunder.

Portman will wield the hammer as Lady Thor alongside returning actors Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.

Director Taika Waititi will be at the helm to direct as well as write the next instalment, which is part of phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

On top of that, there was some stellar Starfleet news as the first trailer for Star Trek: Picard was shown to audiences at the Californian festival celebrating all things comic related.

Patrick Stewart will be resuming his role as Captain Jean Luc Picard for the new series, which will drop onto CBS's All Access streaming platform at the beginning of next year.

Featured Image Credit: Marvel

Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment, Marvel

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

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