Marvel's Upcoming BLADE Movie Will Be Rated R According to Director Yann Demange

It looks like Marvel Studios has got a second R-rated movie in development with the upcoming Blade project. This news comes from the film’s director Yann Demange (Lovecraft Country), who told Deadline: “They gave me the R, which is so important.” He went on to tease:

“We are going to have fun because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got a dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.”

Blade will be the second R-rated film to come out of Marvel Studios, the first is Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming Deadpool 3. I wasn’t sure if Marvel would let Blade through with an R-rating, so this is a pleasant surprise! Marvel is going to allow for the blood to properly flow in the vampire movie.

The script for the movie was initially written by Michael Starrbury (When They See Us) and Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) is now working on the new draft of the script. Mahershala Ali, Mia Goth, and Delroy Lindo are attached to star in the movie.

It was previously reported that Marvel is looking to go with “a darker tone on this film than other MCU projects have been in the past.” So much so, that they wanted to go all in with an R rating. This is gonna be fun! We are going to actually get a dark and twisted Marvel vempire horror film.

Blade was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan for 1973’s The Tomb of Dracula No. 10. He is a half-mortal, half-immortal who hunts vampires in order to avenge his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him.