As he continues to promote Sinners, actor Delroy Lindo has also spent some time talking about a film that didn’t ultimately get off the ground. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lindo discussed his role in Marvel’s attempt to bring Blade back. Lindo was set to star in the project opposite Mahershala Ali as the titular character but left the film before it got off the ground.
“When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input,” Lindo said. “And in the various conversations I had with producers, the writer, the director at the time, it was all leading into being very inclusive. It was really exciting conceptually, but it was also exciting in terms of the character that was going to form.”
“For whatever reason, it just went off the rails,” Lindo added, saying that the excitement around the movie wasn’t enough to get anything made.
Lindo didn’t offer specifics on exactly who he would play in the film but did compare the character to famous activist Marcus Garvey. “I’m not saying that it would’ve been an out-and-out Garvey-ite. Not that, but just in terms of how this man’s philosophy, his ethos, and what was driving him,” he explained. “He was a character who had created a community, a Black community. He was a character who was the head of this community.”
Blade has now been pulled from Marvel’s release calendar after cycling through a number of different writers and directors. The film still remains in creative limbo, but it seems distinctly possible that Wesley Snipes’ Blade will remain the only Blade there is.