Blade’s 2023 arrival in the MCU was revealed on Saturday during the Marvel Studio’s SDCC panel, and Mahershala Ali took to his Instagram account to share a simple reaction to the announcement. Details beyond next summer’s The Marvels were pretty sparse until this weekend, but now we know that Blade will take the last slot of 2023 and bring the Daywalker fully into the MCU after his voice-over tease in the post-credit scene of Eternals last year.
Ali shared an image on his Instagram account of the Blade logo, commenting a blood drop and “2023” to signify the new release reveal. While there are still few details available about the movie, it is believed that filming began on July 4, which puts the time between filming and release right in the usual MCU ballpark.
Of course, the rumors about Blade’s introduction into the MCU have been constant for over a year now since the first announcement that the vampire hunter would be soon debuting in the Marvel Universe. Following the tease in Eternals, which linked Blade to Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, Black Knight and the Ebony Blade, there have been suggestions of the character turning up in the Moon Knight series, which did not happen, and also the Werewolf by Night Special, which so little is known about could still turn out to be true. The real question now is whether there will be any visual introduction given before the movie’s release or if audiences will be going in cold to a brand-new iteration of the character previously portrayed by Wesley Snipes in three movies prior to the birth of the MCU.
Blade Will Be PG-13 on His MCU Debut
Despite much speculation over how darker characters like Blade would be handled in their MCU iterations, it didn’t take long to establish that Blade would not be arriving in an R-rated bloodbath on his debut, but according to previous star Snipes, that doesn’t make a difference to the character. He previously commented:
"I think those kind of stories lend themselves to a wide range of dialogue and situations. Both adult and young adult. I don't know, it seems like the R-rating and PG-13 base is sliding now because it seems that now the 13-year-olds can speak better words than the adults can. As long as it's true and organic to the subject matter, the plot, and the world that's created. If there's consistency, I think it's fine [to be PG-13]."
Naturally, there are plenty of fans who will disagree with Snipes’ opinion and the decision for Blade to sit within the regular family-friendly MCU and not outside it like Deadpool 3 will. However, with Disney seeming to realize that they cannot fully deliver the work of Marvel Comics while sticking strictly to a family-orientated output, there is no way of telling how long it will be before some of the more mature characters of Marvel make appearances in a way that calls for an equally more mature rating.