Marvel Studios has been on a rough and long road trying to get their Blade movie off the ground. Now, a detailed plot leak making the rounds online claims to break down an early version of the film.
Think 1920s setting, a story framed through Blade’s daughter, and a gothic fairy-tale vibe that barely resembles the Wesley Snipes-era films or a standard MCU entry.
It’s wild to look back at how long this project has been in flux. When Kevin Feige officially introduced Mahershala Ali as the MCU’s Blade at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, the announcement felt electric and fans were excited!
Fast forward several years and a parade of release dates came and went. November 2023 turned into September 2024, which then slid to February 2025. For a brief moment, November 7, 2025 seemed possible before Marvel quietly pulled the movie from its calendar entirely and sent it back into redevelopment.
Since then, the creative turnover has been intense. Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange were both attached to direct at different points before creative differences stalled things.
On the writing side, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Beau DeMayo, Michael Starrbury, Nic Pizzolatto, Michael Green, and Eric Pearson all took cracks at the script. Each version reportedly pushed the movie in a new direction.
One of those directions was a period piece. Marvel has never officially confirmed it, but the idea of setting Blade in the 1920s had been whispered about for a while. That plan even got far enough along that Ryan Coogler’s Sinners ended up buying and repurposing costumes that had already been made for the film.
Now comes a Reddit leak claiming to outline the full plot of that early draft. There’s nothing that screams fake on the surface, and a lot of the details line up with what’s been rumored.
The story centers heavily on Blade’s daughter, introduces a new vampire hierarchy, and features a villain named Aaron Thorne, a role originally intended for Aaron Pierre before Marvel pivoted to Mia Goth as Lilith in later drafts.
Notably absent is the Ebony Blade, which only became important in subsequent versions and helped justify Eternals’ dangling post-credits tease.
The leak lays everything out in detail, and it’s worth reading in full to understand just how ambitious and strange this version of the movie was:
“Read the script for Marvel’s Blade movie. The first version, anyway, set in the 1920s. It’s not bad, but it’s very different from the Wesley Snipes movies and an average MCU movie, so I can see why Marvel got cold feet about it. It plays out almost like a supernatural fairy tale told from the perspective of Blade’s daughter Zora.
“It begins with Zora witnessing her mother being killed by a pack of vampires led by main villain Aaron Thorne (Aaron Pierre was supposed to play this role). A big part of this script is that vampire fathers pass their vampirism to their kids.
“Thorne is the son of one of the vampire elders who was recently killed by Blade, and the other elders have denied him his father’s position since he’s a half-black bastard, so he has gathered other outcast vampires to topple the elders. His plan is to sacrifice Zora and drink her blood so he and his followers can become daywalkers like Blade.
“Zora escapes and hides with this old voodoo lady her mother didn’t want her to hang out with. Voodoo granny calls for Blade. The vampires track Zora down and attack voodoo granny’s house. Blade appears, kills one of the vampires and Thorne escapes with the other three.
“Blade only shows up around page 15 of the script. Zora finds out Blade is her father. Voodoo granny tells Blade that Zora is not safe in New Orleans. Blade takes Zora away, and voodoo granny gives her a silver locket before they leave.
“Blade drives Zora to the estate of Quincy Harker, a wealthy descendant of Jonathan Harker whose family finances vampire hunters for generations. There, Blade and Zora meet two other hunters, Rachel Helsing and Taj Nital. She is a descendant of Van Helsing and bonds with Zora, while Taj is an Indian warrior who has taken a vow of silence after his family was killed by vampires. Blade needs Harker’s help to figure out why Thorne is after Zora.
“Blade learns about the ritual, which Blade and Harker both doubt would work. This is when Zora finds out Blade is a half-vampire, and she is frightened. He explains how his mother was bitten while pregnant, and that a vampire hunter named Jamal Afari raised him (Delroy Lindo would have played this role). Jamal runs a black settlement and Blade will take Zora there to hide.
“Blade and Zora take a train to Jamal’s settlement. They bond during the trip, and Blade reassures Zora that vampire children only develop the thirst when they hit puberty and only become true vampires when they first drink blood. Jamal trained Blade, but kicked him out of the when Blade lost control and killed Jamal’s son.
“The voodoo granny is Jamal’s ex-wife who loved Blade like a son and followed him to New Orleans. She created a potion to help Blade keep his thirst at bay. Blade fell in love with Zora’s mother and got her pregnant. He left, unwilling to endanger her and Zora, but asked voodoo granny to watch over them. He then linked up with Harker and his network and began hunting vampires.
“Thorne and his men attack the train, leading to a big action scene where they hunt Blade and Zora through the cars. Blade kills another of Thorne’s followers and has a fight with Thorne before escaping with Zora as the train derails.
“They reach the settlement, Blade has a tense reunion with Jamal, but he agrees to shelter them. Zora learns Blade plans to leave her behind with Jamal and resume his crusade, and is sad. Jamal has a heart-to-heart with Blade where he apologizes to Blade for being a bad father and chasing Blade away and pleads Blade not to commit the same mistake with Zora.
“Thorne attacks the settlement with a bunch of vampires he created from the victims of the train crash. They destroy the settlement, while Thorne kills Jamal and abducts Zora. Blade is captured and tortured after Thorne leaves. Rachel and Taj arrive, kill the vampires torturing Blade and rescue him.
“They go back to Harker’s house to figure out where Thorne could have taken Zora. There, Blade connects the dots and figures out Harker sold him out to Thorne. That’s how Thorne located them on the train and later on the settlement.
“Harker rationalizes they can use Thorne to wipe out the elders, and then kill Thorne and his followers. Zora’s life is a necessary sacrifice since the ritual won’t work. Blade, Rachel and Taj cut ties with Harker and leave him behind to rescue Zora. Harker later kill himself out of shame.
“Blade, Rachel and Taj attack the temple where Thorne is preparing the sacrifice Zora, take out Thorne’s followers and we get fights between Blade and Thorne, Rachel and Thorne’s henchwoman and Taj and Thorne’s henchman.
“Taj is killed in the fight and dies in Rachel’s arms, while Thorne gets the upper hand on Blade until Zora stabs Thorne with the silver locket, allowing Blade to catch his second wind and push Thorne towards the rising sun where Thorne bursts into flames. The vampires had destroyed Blade’s spare potion earlier, so he begins to succumb to the thirst and go feral, but Zora manages to get through and get him to control himself long enough for her to make some more potion (she learned it from voodoo granny).
“Rachel inherits Harker’s fortune and keeps financing vampire hunters. Blade and Zora returns to New Orleans and reunite with voodoo granny. Zora realizes she can’t stay with Blade because it’s dangerous, and they part ways, with Zora staying with voodoo granny and Blade watching over her from the shadows.
“We then get a montage of Zora growing old, using granny’s potions to keep her thirst at bay. She never becomes a full vampire, ages like a normal person, marries, has kids and dies of old age in the 90s. Blade attends the funeral and has a brief interaction with his granddaughter, who doesn’t know who he is. He says he’s an old friend of the family, before walking back into the shadows.”
A 1920s vampire epic led by Blade’s daughter is a big swing, but it sounds like it would’ve been pretty awesome! What do you think?