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Nia DaCosta
DaCosta made Marvel history by becoming the first Black woman, and the youngest filmmaker, to land a directing job with the studio. She’s finishing up that project now, The Marvels, with the film slated for release next July. While that film will certainly feature a more cosmic esthetic that something like Blade, DaCosta has proven herself handy with horror as well: she directed the underrated 2021 Candyman sequel, and its combination of an urban milieu, folklore, and shadowy nocturnal stalkers may be just right for Blade – if she’s willing to stick around the MCU a while longer.
Guillermo del Toro
Landing the great maestro of modern dark fantasy filmmaking would be a major coup for Kevin Feige and Marvel – along the lines of nabbing Sam Raimi to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – but it would also bring GDT back to one of his early triumphs. Del Toro, of course, directed Blade II (2002), the second and widely considered the best entry in the original trilogy starring Wesley Snipes as the Daywalker. While he has moved onto other thematic concerns with his more recent films like Nightmare Alley, Del Toro might love the chance to make his mark on the MCU with a character he can rebuild the way he’d like. Plus it could reignite excitement around an already troubled film.
J.D. Dillard
We still have fond memories of J.D. Dillard’s directorial debut, 2016’s Sleight, in which an excellent Jacob Latimore played a young street magician who also fashions himself into a homemade superhero. Dillard followed that up with Sweetheart, a horror tale in which Kiersey Clemons finds herself stranded on an island with a humanoid sea creature. His next film, Devotion, is a war drama, but other recent work like directing episodes of The Outsider and The Twilight Zone indicate that he has a large soft spot for the supernatural – which might make him a good fit for Blade.
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Gareth Evans
This Welsh filmmaker is best known for his two stunning Indonesian action thrillers, The Raid (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014), but he also directed the extremely dark – if not entirely coherent – folk horror movie Apostle for Netflix in 2018. He’s back with the streaming platform for his next film, Havoc, another dark crime thriller starring Tom Hardy. Evans is second to none with action and fight sequences, and his films fairly drip with mood and atmosphere. He also might not be averse to playing in a comic book universe; he was one of the many filmmakers (along with GDT and others) who took a swing at developing Justice League Dark for DC Films.
Michael Giacchino
After his stellar work recreating the look and texture of old Universal and Hammer horror movies for Marvel’s Halloween special, Werewolf by Night, the well-known composer-turned-director might easily make the shift to a larger, more ambitious, but still horror-flavored property like Blade. He’s already in the family, he’s introduced Marvel monsters like Werewolf by Night and Man-Thing into the MCU, and we’re sure he’s eager to prove himself again as a director.
Natalie Erika James
Japanese-Australian writer-director Natalie Erika James made a stunning feature debut with 2020’s Relic, a thoroughly eerie horror drama about three generations of women dealing with aging, death, and loss of memory through a terrifying supernatural lens. While she’s been developing another original horror outing called Drum Wave, she’s also currently in production on Apartment 7A, a highly secretive film that is rumored to be a (*sigh*) prequel to Rosemary’s Baby. James’ focus on character, tone, and atmosphere would be her biggest strengths in helming Blade, especially if it tilts more toward horror than straight superhero action.
