Former Blade Director Reveals What Marvel Tells Filmmakers Upon Entering MCU

Former Blade Director Bassam Tariq has offered a surprisingly candid account of what Marvel Studios tells filmmakers when they enter the MCU.

According to Tariq, the directors are effectively warned from the beginning that they are working on a Marvel movie first and then their own movie.

“It’s so funny, in the Marvel world… they tell you this very nicely, and they say, ‘Look, this is a Marvel movie directed by one person,'” Tariq said. Entertainment Weekly. “They cut out shots, they do a lot of things and that’s fine, right?”

“Your name may not matter,” Mahershala Ali jokingly added.

Tariq was originally hired to direct the troubled Marvel film. Blade reboot starring Ali. The project never materialized, but the two eventually met to Your Mother Your Mother Your Motherwhich Tariq described as an opportunity to express himself more freely as a filmmaker.

His comments come as both Marvel and Kevin Feige face renewed criticism for BladeThe failure to take off.

Blade remains stuck in development

Marvel announced its MCU reboot Bladewith Ali playing the ruthless vampire hunter, in 2019. What followed was a series of setbacks that lasted for years, with reports repeatedly pointing to behind-the-scenes problems related to the script and creative direction.

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In a recent interview, Feige acknowledged feeling personally responsible for the project’s failure.

“I feel like a huge loser and a failure for not being able to take off with Mahershala,” he said in the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

Ali did not dispute Feige’s assessment and agreed that the Marvel Studios boss should feel responsible.

“I agree with him,” Ali said. GQ. “I agree with him 100%. 100%, he should feel that way.”

Tariq’s latest comments may offer another insight into the studio’s inner workings. More importantly, they seem to reinforce something other filmmakers have been saying about Marvel Studios for years.

Marvel’s approach has come up before

Perhaps the most famous example is Edgar Wright, who spent years developing Ant Man before abandoning the project due to creative differences.

“The most diplomatic answer is that I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie,” Wright said. Variety in 2017.

Wright said the breaking point came when Marvel wanted to write another draft of the script without him. The filmmaker said that would have effectively transformed him from screenwriter and director to a “director for hire.”

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A similar vision behind the curtain emerged when Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel talked about the possibility of being directed. black widow.

Martel claimed that Marvel told him, “Don’t worry about the action scenes, we’ll take care of that.”

She didn’t feel relieved. Martel said she wanted to direct those sequences herself and criticized the apparent assumption that her primary responsibility would be to develop Scarlett Johansson’s character.

Filmmakers enter the Marvel machine

Even the filmmakers who actually completed MCU films have acknowledged those limitations.

while promoting the wonders In 2023, director Nia DaCosta was notably open about where final control lay.

“It’s a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie,” DaCosta said. vanity fair. “So I think you guys live in that reality, but I tried to go in knowing that some of you are going to take a backseat.”

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None of this means that Marvel directors don’t have creative influence. Tariq specifically praised Ryan Coogler’s work within the MCU and credited Feige and Marvel for teaching him to “think big and be ambitious.”

However, his description adds further evidence to a pattern that dates back more than a decade.

Marvel Studios can hire filmmakers with distinctive voices, but those voices ultimately have to operate within a much larger system. Wright walked away when that deal no longer worked for him. Martel questioned it before signing. DaCosta accepted that parts of his vision would “take a backseat.”

Now Tariq says that Marvel essentially tells directors the same thing from the beginning: this is a Marvel movie first and a director’s movie second.

Are you surprised by what Marvel tells filmmakers when they enter the MCU? Let us know and tell us!

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