Wondering Where Blade Fits in the MCU Schedule? Feige Says It’s Not Part of Phase 4

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of shake up to the Phase 4 MCU schedule. The entire slate was shifted due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, and then a few more dates were shuffled when Sony delayed Spider-Man 3 to the same date as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Even before these shifts

This is the current MCU film release schedule as it exists today, and this could change again in the future:

11/5/20 – Black Widow
2/12/21 – Eternals
5/7/21 – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
11/5/21 – Spider-Man 3
2/11/22 – Thor: Love and Thunder
3/25/22 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
5/6/22 – Black Panther 2
7/8/22 – Captain Marvel 2
10/7/22 – Untitled
2/17/23 – Untitled
5/5/23 – Untitled
7/28/23 – Untitled
11/3/23 – Untitled

Because Kevin Feige announced Blade at San Diego Comic Con 2019, people assume it’s part of the near-future of the MCU, but it doesn’t appear to be. In a video interview with Collider at that convention, Kevin Feige is directly asked if Blade is part of Phase 4 and he said it wasn’t:

Collider: Is Blade Phase 4?

Kevin Feige: No.

Which makes a lot of sense. Aside from announcing the star of the movie, there hasn’t been any announcement of a writer, producers, or director for the movie. All of that would’ve been reported via Hollywood trades if the movie was being worked on right now.

On the other hand, we know there are writers working on a third Deadpool and the movie is in development with Ryan Reynolds producing it alongside Kevin Feige. Despite many people hoping for Blade to arrive early, it’s very possible that we’ll see the third Deadpool movie before it. And yes, it’ll be part of the MCU and rated R.

So when it comes to Blade, Kevin Feige says it’s not part of Phase 4 and a third Deadpool appears to be further along in development than it is. Which means it might be quite a while before we see his MCU debut and not quite as early as some have been hoping.