Marvel Hits Pause on ‘Blade’ and ‘Deadpool 4’ — No Hurry to Get Them Made

For the next year, there won’t be a lot of new Marvel movies to talk about. The next one coming out is “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” hitting theaters on July 31. After that, fans can look forward to “Doomsday” in December, and then “Avengers: Secret Wars” won’t arrive until December 2027.

With the superhero genre cooling down a bit across the industry, Marvel isn’t rushing to work on some of their long-awaited projects like the “Blade” reboot or a new “Deadpool” movie, sources told Variety.

That said, there is some buzz about a new “Black Panther 3,” with Ryan Coogler possibly directing, and that’s getting people inside Marvel excited.

Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool, has talked about not knowing when he’ll suit up as the character again. He mentioned a flashforward scene in the latest Deadpool movie where a dying Deadpool is held by a crying Thor.

Reynolds thinks this scene might be ignored for now, but Marvel might treat it as official and could explore it in future films. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in November 2024 that they are looking for ways to bring Deadpool and Wolverine back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In December 2024, Reynolds shared that he has some ideas for where Deadpool could go next. He’d like to see Deadpool work alongside the Avengers or the X-Men, but he doesn’t want the character to officially join those teams, because he believes that would mean “the end of his journey.”

Reynolds feels Deadpool is best when he’s part of a group and paired with Wolverine. He also said he’s not interested in playing Deadpool as the main lead again, explaining, “It works best if you take everything away from him and put his back against the wall. I can’t really do that again. A fourth time feels a little iterative and redundant.”

In April 2025, Reynolds revealed he was working on a script for a team-up movie featuring Deadpool and three or four X-Men characters. Reports from The Hollywood Reporter say Reynolds is developing these ideas on his own before presenting them to Marvel Studios.

In July 2025, Variety’s Tatiana Siegel reported that Marvel executives are not in a hurry to make a fourth Deadpool film. This comes as part of a wider slowdown in superhero projects across the industry.

As for “Blade,” Marvel Studios took back the film rights to the character by July 2011 after New Line Cinema’s trilogy ended in 2004. They started working on a new Blade movie around 2013. In February 2019, Mahershala Ali, known for his role in the Marvel TV show “Luke Cage,” approached Marvel about playing Blade.

At that year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced Ali would star as Blade. He even made a small uncredited voice cameo in “Eternals” in 2021.

Over the next few years, several directors were attached to the Blade reboot, including Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange, but the project faced many delays. By June 2024, Eric Pearson was rewriting the script, and Marvel was searching for a new director. Then in October 2024, Blade was quietly taken off Marvel’s release schedule.

Overall, Marvel seems to be taking its time, focusing on other projects and carefully planning where to take some of its most popular characters next.

Reports from insiders, as first revealed by Variety.

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