Beau DeMayo Provides Details From His Unused BLADE Reboot Script That Was Inspired by THE RAID
Beau DeMayo is a writer best known for working on shows like The Originals, The Witcher, Moon Knight, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and most recently, creating and showrunning the series X-Men ‘97.
After being fired from his most recent project at Marvel, the writer alleged that Marvel Studios and Disney “stripped” him of his Season 2 credits over a “gay pride” fan art that he shared on Instagram.
The studio fired back and said he was actually released because of an internal investigation and its findings that he had sent inappropriate photos of himself to various young staffers.
DeMayo has since been vocal about the allegations, stating they are completely false, and adding that Marvel was a “toxic environment” with “near criminal working conditions” that “turns individuals against one another, stokes paranoia to ensure compliance.”
Aside from the drama, and the guarantee that neither DeMayo nor Marvel will ever be seeking to rekindle that working relationship, DeMayo has released some interesting info about what could have been if he had stayed on to write the script for the studio’s Blade movie.
In a recent social media post, DeMayo shared what his pitch was, as well as his own ponderings as to why the studio has had such a hard time getting this reboot off the ground:
"Take a John Wick movie. Give mobsters fangs. Swap Keanu for Ali, hand him a sword, not a daughter who makes him fret over swinging the hero’s name. Wick cost 20 mill to make. Add 10 mill for vampire/Darkhold magic VFX, you have 30-40 mill Marvel movie.
"I don’t get why it’s been so hard. Studio’s broken. I wrote 3 drafts and a dozen outlines in 3 impossible months, my fav was a ‘The Raid’-style treatment where Blade finds himself defending a rundown tenement of humans from Varney’s vamp hordes until daylight.
Took place over one night Blade learns from tenant Jericho Drumm that Varney’s attacking b/c the female tenant who Blade sorta fancies has been magically impregnated with Lilith by tenants who’re secretly Darkhold Cultists. Think 30 Days of Night meets Rosemary’s Baby."
He certainly has some interesting ideas! Marvel really has had a drawn out road with the character. It seemed like we were back on track with Mahershala Ali cast as the newest version, but then fans saw Wesley Snipes return in Deadpool & Wolverine, and many expressed their desire to see him back in a full-length film role! So we are seemingly back at square one.
How would you like to see the studio move forward with Blade?