While it was easily the most exciting non-Picard-based hour-and-a-half of the day today, Marvel’s big Comic-Con panel tonight didn’t have too many surprises stored up—at least, until the end. Because while most of the projects announced by Kevin Feige and company were things we’d at least heard about before—Shang-Chi, Black Widow, Doctor Strange 2, etc.—the panel ended with one massive shocker: The reveal of a new Blade movie, with Mahershala Ali in the titular day-walking role.
As superhero history nerds (including us) are always happy to remind you, the original Blade was the first Marvel movie success story, arriving as it did all the way back in 1998 and making a major, blood-rave splash at the box office. As Blade, Wesley Snipes projected teeth-gritting cool, while also setting the stage for all the comic-book mayhem to come—including teaming up with Ryan Reynolds as a motor-mouthed ass-kicker in Blade: Trinity.
Feige and company gave literally no details about the project beyond the title and a poster—in fact, we’re only mostly sure this is a movie, and not another Disney+ TV show—but the combination of Oscar winner Ali’s ever-increasing star power, and the long-held fan-love for Blade’s bloody sense of fun, suggests that resisting this particular idea might be as futile as trying to iceskate uphill.