Aaron Pierre Is No Longer Attached To The 'Blade' Reboot
There won’t be any vampire run-ins for the 'Old' and 'Genius' actor
Actor Aaron Pierre has revealed that his role in Marvel Studios’s reboot of Blade is no longer present in current versions of its script. As such, he is no longer attached.
At the 55th NAACP Image Awards red carpet, Pierre, who most recently played Malcolm X in the MLK/X season of Genius that aired over February, revealed “Early on, there were conversations. As the project evolved, I’m no longer part of that — attached.” Pierre’s casting was never officially announced, though that’s the case for everyone who isn’t Mahershala Ali, who’s playing the title vampire hunter. It was reported that Pierre was cast in his part after “an expansive and thorough” casting process. Delroy Lindo and Mia Goth are the two remaining actors who are known to be attached but as stated are still unannounced.
It has been a long and bumpy road for this film. Since July 2021, the production has gone through a number of attached directors and writers. Originally it was Bassam Tariq was to direct, with a Stacy Osei-Kuffour script, but they left two months before production was supposed go begin. Yann Demange was then hired as director in November 2022 and Michael Green was hired as screenwriter by this past November. Reportedly there are at least three other writers, incluing Michael Starrbury, whose draft Nic Pizzolatto was working off of shortly before the writers began striking. It is unknown if Beau DeMayo's early drafts count here.
While Pierre is no longer part of the Blade reboot, he is clearly very excited about what he does have coming up this year, which will be between 11 and 19 months before Blade’s current November 7, 2025 release date. They include Barry Jenkins’s Mufasa: The Lion King prequel set for December 20, 2024, where he is voicing young Mufasa, and Rebel Ridge directed by Jeremy Saulnier for Netflix, which does not yet have a release date. He said “…myself and the team are deeply excited about [these films] and can’t wait to share with the world — and have people engage with it and experience it in whatever way they feel fit.” Earlier this month Saulnier confirmed that his film was in the final stages of post-production.
Sources: Variety, Film Stories