It’s claimed that John Wick‘s Chad Stahelski is now rumored to direct Marvel’s Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali.
Blade has been in development hell and has been in the works for at least six years now.
The project has gone through at least three directors and upwards of a half dozen writers.
What does the Chad Stahelski Blade rumor say?
The rumor first surfaced via World of Reel, withJeff Sneider now backing up the claim.
Sneider says that Cary Fukunaga has exited Blade over creative differences and that he believes the rumor of Stahelski is true.
World of Reel adds that Michael Green and Eric Pearson have written and finalized the script and that Marvel has hired Stahelski to direct.
The site further reports that Kevin Feige is refusing to give up on Blade and wants it to be rated R, with a budget of around $80 million.
Chad Stahelski would love to take on Blade
Stahelski is actually no stranger to Marvel. He worked on the stunts on Iron Man 2, and was second unit director on Captain America: Civil War. Last year while appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stahelski said he would love to take on Blade:
“Look, I’ve worked for Marvel a bunch and they’ve been very very good to me. Kevin Feige… he’s almost been a bit of a mentor in the capacity of advice he was very happy to give me about how to open up a franchise with John Wick.”
“Of all the things out there, I would take a swing at Blade in a second. Like that’s one that gets under my skin, like ‘Ah! I’d take a swing at that one.'”
“We’ve talked about it, but look they’ve got a good formula… they have their thing going and I think they’ve got the right people involved in Blade now…”
What’s next for Chad Stahelski?
Stahelski is pretty busy as he is now overseeing the entire John Wick franchise at Lionsgate. Ballerina gets released on June 6, which reportedly saw Stahelski heavily involved with reshoots.
He’s also next directing Henry Cavill in the Highlander reboot, which will film in Scotland.
IMDb also lists Stahelski as directing a slew of projects including Ghosts of Tsushima, Shibumi, Black Samurai, Vice City, Rain, Sandman Slim, Rainbow Six, Kill or be Killed, and Gangsters of Shanghai. John Wick 5 is also said to be happening.
