Is Marvel Cancelling ‘Blade’ and ‘Armor Wars’? A Recent Scoop by an Industry Insider Suggests Their Fate Will Be Decided Soon

Marvel Studios has plenty of both rumored and confirmed projects in development. Some of them are new ideas and some have been unfortunately in development for a long time, even before the SAG-AFTRA strike that paralyzed the whole industry.

While fans are looking forward to the X-Men live-action reboot, ‘Avengers’ movies, and ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ it’s easy to forget that some projects have been in development for years without a clear release date or updates.

Two of the most troubled projects currently are ‘Blade’ reboot staring Mahershala Ali in the titular role, and ‘Armor Wars,’ a movie-turned-show-turned-movie that’s been in development for more than a decade.

‘Armor Wars’ was envisioned as a film based on the comic storyline of the same name. It was intended to follow ‘Secret Invasion’ (which came out last year) and ‘Ironheart’ (Set to be released in 2025). Back in 2011, Don Cheadle confirmed that a War Machine film was in the works and that Joe Robert Cole had been hired to write it.

Nine years later, during Disney’s 2020 Investor Day, it was announced that ‘Armor Wars’ would be developed as a television series for Disney+, with Don Cheadle set to reprise his role as James Rhodes. In 2021, Cheadle also mentioned that production would begin in a few months.

In August 2021, Yassir Lester was brought on as the head writer for the series. However, by September 2022, Marvel Studios decided to turn the series into a feature film, keeping both Don Cheadle and Yassir Lester involved. Filming was expected to start in early 2023 at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, but was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, which impacted the entire entertainment industry.

You can argue that it doesn’t even make sense to adapt ‘Armor Wars’ without Iron Man, but here we are.

‘Blade’ is in a similar situation, although we do periodically get updates on the project. In case you don’t remember, Mahershala Ali, who pitched the idea to the studio and was announced as Blade back in 2018, has seen the project face ongoing script issues and multiple changes in writers and directors. These challenges have caused many delays, and while there is still confidence that the movie will be released, the future remains uncertain.

Ali’s attorney recently commented how it’s insane that the movie has been in development for so long without actually starting production, insider reports vary with some claiming that Ali is the biggest problem and some claiming that the writing that’s being delivered is just not good enough.

In any case, the most recent rumors regarding the projects are troubling, despite ‘Blade’ having a November 2025 release date it seems that the project might never see the light of the day, pardon the pun.

Daniel Richtman recently stated on his Patreon account that the latest buzz around the studio is that the fate of both projects will be decided in the coming months, meaning it’s make-it-break it for both movies:

This is good news for ‘Blade,’ perhaps, since with the release of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ fans are hoping that Wesley Snipes’ Blade will get his own Logan-esque MCU movie, with Ali’s ‘Blade’ being canceled this seems like a realistic option.

However, ‘Armor Wars’ being canceled doesn’t mean that War Machine will get an alternative project, except through the upcoming ‘Vision’ show or some project adapting the West Coast Avengers stories. Fans are aware of that and this is why the petition was started on Change.org to stop the studio from canceling the project. The petition at the time of this writing has 72 signatures.

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