Overview
- Bassam Tariq told reporters that Marvel had already choreographed large, wire‑heavy fight sequences and staged 1920s New Orleans sets at Trilith Studios before a finished script existed.
- Tariq said the studio would not let him write the screenplay, and he left the project after roughly 14 months because he felt he lacked creative control.
- Mahershala Ali confirmed he has moved on from that Blade iteration and said his year of combat training for the film was repurposed into the new movie he and Tariq premiered at TIFF.
- Production designer Stefania Cella and craftspeople built detailed period sets that went unused, a waste of time and money that Tariq said still troubles him.
- The disclosures deepen scrutiny of Marvel’s development process, spotlighting how expensive pre-production can proceed without a script and how that practice can affect filmmakers’ careers and studio planning.