X-Men ’97 Creator Beau DeMayo Reveals The Blade Movie Pitch We Never Saw

Will we ever see the Daywalker on the big screen again? Well, unless Marvel and Disney plan to reinstate Wesley Snipes following his celebrated cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” it seems increasingly unlikely. Thus far, Marvel Studios’ “Blade” movie has been about as cursed as they come, and if you haven’t been keeping tabs, here’s a quick rundown.

The movie was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali taking the stage to confirm he would star. Bassam Tariq was initially on board to direct, but things didn’t quite work out. “Blade” replaced its director with “Lovecraft Country” and “White Boy Rick” filmmaker Yann Demange. Then, the seemingly cursed movie lost its director again, with Demange departing the film on what were reportedly amicable terms. This is, of course, to say nothing of the multiple writers attached to this movie throughout its troubled production. Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, and Nic Pizzolatto were all involved at various points, before current screenwriter Eric Pearson managed to produce a script Marvel appeared to deem workable.

What’s more, it seems that before Pearson took a shot at the film’s script, there were even more writers involved in the “Blade” production. Disgraced “X-Men ’97” creator Beau DeMayo also had a run at it, penning several drafts and outlines for the long-gestating project — all of which Marvel appears to have overlooked. Now, the writer is sharing some of his ideas on social media, and while the man himself might have tarnished his legacy for good, at least one of his lost drafts sounds pretty cool.

Beau DeMayo was abruptly fired from the “X-Men” revival series a week before its premiere, but Disney/Marvel Studios provided no information as to why at the time. Later, Marvel issued a statement, claiming that the firing came as the result of an internal investigation that yielded “egregious” findings, while DeMayo maintained that he had been let go due to a Gay Pride post on his Instagram. Whatever the case, DeMayo is very much not a part of the Marvel Studios machine at this point. But that hasn’t stopped him from sharing some of his experiences at the company — the latest of which includes some of his unused ideas for the “Blade” movie.

Responding to unconfirmed reports that “Blade” could be shelved, or put on hold momentarily, DeMayo took to Twitter/X to share his thoughts on the ongoing debacle. The former “X-Men ’97” EP seemed incredulous at the news, writing “I don’t get why it’s been so hard” before suggesting that the key to setting things straight was to, “Take a ‘John Wick’ movie. Give mobsters fangs. Swap Keanu for Ali, hand him a sword, not a daughter who makes him fret over swinging the hero’s name.”

It’s not necessarily a bad idea, though surely the Blade character has been around in the comics for long enough and is more than capable of carrying his own movie without trying to emulate Keanu’s relentless assassin. But much more intriguing was DeMayo’s next idea: a “‘The Raid’-style treatment” which he wrote and which would have seen the Daywalker “defending a rundown tenement of humans” from “vamp hordes until daylight.”

2011’s “The Raid,” with its absolutely brutal action scenes and relentless pace, starred Iko Uwais as Rama, a member of a tactical squad tasked with laying siege to an apartment block to shut down the drug operation of a kingpin named Tama (Ray Sahetapy). The film follows Rama as he and his team fight their way through every floor of the Jakarta high-rise, fending off residents who want to claim the reward being offered by Tama for the squad’s death. It’s an all-out action-fest that somehow manages to retain its grit and not spill over into full-on Steven Segal-style schlock. It’s this which Beau DeMayo seemingly wanted to recreate with his “Blade” treatment.

In his X thread, DeMayo went on to explain that in his “The Raid”-style treatment, which took place over one night, the movie’s antagonist would have been Varnae, or “Varney,” the vampire lord from whom all other vampires are descended. At one point in the comics, Varnae possessed the body of Blade, though that doesn’t seem to be the direction DeMayo was going. Instead, the writer’s treatment involved Blade meeting Jericho Drumm (who in the comics becomes Doctor Voodoo). Drumm is a tenant in the apartment block in question, and tells Blade that Varnae’s vamps are attacking because a female tenant who “Blade sorta fancies” has been “magically impregnated with Lilith by tenants who’re secretly Darkhold Cultists.”

Lilith could refer to one of two characters in the comic books but seems likely to be the ancient demon goddess who is known as the Mother of All Demons. The Darkhold Cultists are also from the comic books, and worship the Darkhold — a book of occult magic. The idea, according to DeMayo, is that all of this would add up to a “’30 Days of Night’ meets ‘Rosemary’s Baby'” situation, presumably all taking place within the aforementioned “Raid” framework.

Beau DeMayo provided yet more information about his scrapped idea for “Blade,” teasing a finale that would have seen Blade “forced to decide what to do with [the female tenant] and the baby in the final act to keep the Mother of Evil out of Varney’s hands as the first vampire arrives to kidnap her.” Jericho Drumm would also have had a significant role to play beyond being a tenant in the building. According to DeMayo, Drumm would have produced “old voodoo occult objects” to help the Daywalker defeat Varney.

It’s certainly not the worst idea for a “Blade” movie. Wesley Snipes’ tenure in the role saw him play the Daywalker across three films, none of which used any kind of high-concept approach such as trapping Blade in a building and having him fight his way out. As such, making a “Raid”-style “Blade” movie would help differentiate Marvel Studios’ version from the previous trilogy and that can only be a good thing, seeing as many of us who grew up with Snipes in the role don’t necessarily see how a Marvel Studios production could do much better than the “Blade” that became a great comic book movie before such a thing was cool.

Interestingly enough, DeMayo’s treatment does bear some similarities to another scrapped version of “Blade” that was to be set in the 1920s. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this iteration of the movie was originally set to shoot in 2023, and “featured Mia Goth as a vampire villain named Lilith who wanted the blood of Blade’s daughter.” It seems the Lilith character has been a part of several versions of this movie, then, given DeMayo’s revelations regarding his unused treatment.

The writer also shared that he “didn’t get to show this treatment to the studio before [he] was pulled off the project,” so it seems the “Blade/Raid” treatment never made it past that phase. But if the movie ever does get released, it will be interesting to see if any elements of DeMayo’s treatment are present.