MCU’s Blade will be R-rated, and Mahershala Ali “ruthless” in the role

Blade director Yann Demange has been talking about his forthcoming movie, revealing that the film will have an R-rating, and promising that leading man Mahershala Ali will bring both “ruthlessness” and “ferocity” to Marvel’s vampire hunter.

Blade has been in the news this past week, with the long-gestating reboot making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

A wide-ranging MCU piece in Variety claimed that the film’s narrative was dominated by women rather than Blade himself, with the character relegated to fourth lead. The article also suggested that the budget would be less than $100 million, which is around half that of recent Marvel movies.

Director Yann Demange didn’t address these issues in a new interview that touched on the movie. But the ’71 helmer did discuss what his lead actor adds to proceedings.

MCU’s Blade will be R-rated, and Mahershala Ali “ruthless” in the role

Mahershala Ali – who won Academy Awards for Moonlight and Green Book – plays Blade in the forthcoming reboot. And Yann Demange believes audiences will see a different dimension to the actor in his proposed MCU debut.

“For Blade, we are going to have fun because Mahershala is such a deep actor,” Demange tells Deadline. “I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got a dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.”

The film’s certificate has also been questioned online, with Marvel focusing on PG and PG-13 movies to get the biggest audience possible into theaters. But Blade is rooted in horror, and the news is good, with Demange stating: “They gave me the R, which is so important.” 

That will make Blade the studio’s second R-rated movie, after the forthcoming Deadpool 3, a movie that’s also rumored to feature Blade. Meaning we could see Ali in MCU action even sooner.

For more on what’s happening at Marvel, you can read about plans to bring dead Avengers back here, and talk of replacing Kang the Conqueror with Doctor Doom here. While you can also check out a bunch of superhero previews below:

Spider-Man 4 | Venom 3 | Deadpool 3 | X-Men ’97 | Captain America: Brave New World | She-Hulk Season 2 | What If Season 2 | Thor 5 | Fantastic Four | Avengers Secret Wars | Avengers The Kang Dynasty | Agatha Darkhold Diaries | Daredevil: Born Again