Mahershala Ali's Blade Reboot Has Recruited One Of Horror's Most Popular New Stars

Mia Goth theatrically holds a pitchfork over her head in the barn in Pearl.
(Image credit: A24/Christopher Moss)

It’s been nearly four years since Kevin Feige surprised Marvel fans with the announcement that a new Blade movie would be part of the MCU and Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali would be playing the vampire hunter. After some behind-the-scenes shuffling, the upcoming Marvel movie set to be released fall of next year, and the cast is finally coming together with the addition of one of the horror genre’s brightest stars. 

Mia Goth, the star of Ti West’s X movies and most recently Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, is reportedly on board for Blade, per Deadline. As per usual in the MCU, details of her role have not been revealed, but bring on the fan theories! 

Blade found a new director in Yann Demange back in November after its former director, Bassam Tariq, parted ways with the film two months prior to that. Michael Starrbury’s name is on the script, in big part thanks to Mahershala Ali being “personally involved” in his hiring. 

Also among the Blade cast so far is Delroy Lindo, memorably of Malcolm X and Da 5 Bloods fame, and Aaron Pierre, who starred in 2022 M. Night Shyamalan movie Old and in the Superman series Krypton. Blade should be kicking off filming sometime this year ahead of its release date on September 6, 2024 where it will conclude Phase 5 two months after Thunderbolts' release, and two months before Deadpool 3 launches Phase 6.

Prior to this exciting casting news, the 29-year-old English actress gave two highlight performances last year in the interconnected horror movies X and Pearl that even had fans campaigning for award nominations for her. Ti West’s double feature had Mia Goth first playing both a '70s-era porn star named Maxine and a murderous old woman named Pearl, the latter in unrecognizable prosthetics. She then played the younger version of Pearl in the prequel named after the character. Goth is set to play Maxine after the events of X in MaXXXine, which is currently being filmed. 

In addition to those recent roles, Goth also starred alongside Anya Taylor-Joy in the 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma and worked alongside the likes of Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson in Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the horror classic Suspiria. Goth has become something of an indie darling over the years, Blade will mark her most mainstream and high-profile role to date. 

Last month, Goth also became attached to Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein which is expected to also star Oscar Isaac and Andrew Garfield, both of whom have appeared in the MCU as Moon Knight and Spider-Man (of another universe), respectively. Mia Goth has certainly shown that she has range in her young career thus far, so she could be anything from a badass vampire hunter sidekick to the big bad of Blade. We’ll keep you posted as Blade approaches production. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.