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Google PlayDirector Bassam Tariq has exited Marvel’s upcoming Blade film starring Mahershala Ali.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, which first broke the news on Tuesday night, it wasn’t immediately clear what kind of effect the director’s exit would have on the film’s November 2023 release date. Shooting was reported to have previously been on track to start up later this year in Atlanta, Georgia.
In a statement to THR, a Marvel rep cited Tariq’s exit as being a result of “continued shifts” in the schedule. Tariq, who will still hold an executive producer title on the film, said he was “eager to see” where the next director takes the project. At the time of this writing, a new director had not been publicly announced.
Last September, Tariq—then fresh off the U.S. release of his and Riz Ahmed’s Mogul Mowgli—shouted out the Wesley Snipes-led Blade trilogy for having gotten “this whole ball rolling.” He also touted the observable talent of writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour and star Mahershala Ali, whose extended assortment of acclaim includes two Oscars.
“A Black man created the superhero world that we’re in, that’s just the truth,” Tariq told IndieWire at the time.
Ali, meanwhile, said during a Breakfast Club interview last December that he was “humbled and so encouraged” by the public support he and the project had received from Snipes.
“It’s a lot of pressure, it’s a lot,” Ali, who previously entered the larger Marvel universe with his performance as Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in Netflix’s Luke Cage, said. “But, you know, other people have done it and survived and succeeded so I’m gonna try to set myself up to do the absolute best work I can do.”
