Marvel Studios’ Blade film starring Mahershala Ali has tapped another star. Delroy Lindo will also star in the film, directed by Bassam Tariq. The script was written by Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour.
Osei-Kuffour will be the first Black woman to write a Marvel film and Tariq will be the fourth director of color to work on a Marvel film, backing up Kevin Feige’s insistence on diversifying the MCU in front of and behind the scenes in Phase 4 and beyond.
Blade is currently in pre-production. The character Blade was recently hinted at in the Disney+ Marvel series Loki, when Mobius (Owen Wilson) complains to Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) about keeping track of Loki variants being tougher than tracking down vampires in the Sacred Timeline. Then, it was officially confirmed that the character was now in the MCU when Ali voiced the character in a post-credits scene with Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington).
Lindo, who garnered critical acclaim for Da 5 Bloods last year, can be currently seen in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Lindo’s casting.