Los Angeles: Actor Delroy Lindo is joining the cast of Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’, starring Mahershala Ali as the titular human-vampire hybrid.
Lindo is the first actor to join the cast since Ali broke the news of the ‘Blade’ reboot at the end of Marvel Studios’ 2019 panel at San Diego Comic-Con, reports variety.com.
It is directed by Bassam Tariq and the script is by Stacy Osei-Kuffour.
Details about Lindo’s role in the film are still underwraps, but one strong possibility is Jamal Afari, who in the Marvel comics is the man who raised and mentored Blade also known as Eric Brooks in the ways of vampire hunting when Eric was young.
In the comics, Jamal is Black, but in the 1998 feature adaptation of ‘Blade’ starring Wesley Snipes, the character was renamed Abraham Whistler and cast with white actor Kris Kristofferson.
Marvel has not yet announced a release date for ‘Blade’, but observers expect the film to debut in the fall of 2023.
Lindo is coming off another critically-acclaimed collaboration with Spike Lee in Netflix’s aDa 5 Bloods’.
The western epic ‘The Harder They Fall’, he plays Bass Reeves, the real-life lawman who was an inspiration for the Lone Ranger. The actor will next appear in Neil Gaiman’s ‘Anansi Boys’ series at Amazon, and he’s set to make his directorial debut with the film “Jabari’s People.”
(IANS)