Is Marvel finally ready to reveal Blade? New trailer suggests vampire is ready for his MCU debut

This year has been a ride for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Harrison Ford joining as Red Hulk and Charlie Cox back as Daredevil, and Marvel’s first family finally getting their own film. But the latest animated offering, Marvel Zombies, is truly pushing the boundaries of "things you've never seen before." It's not just the gore-soaked, R-rated trailer that has us talking; it's the revelation that a certain daywalking vampire hunter might finally be stepping into the spotlight.

Of course, we mean Blade, who was first teased years ago at the end of The Eternals. The new trailer for Marvel Zombies gives us a glimpse of Moon Knight variant Blade Knight dismembering Ghost and even an undead Namor, but the real kicker is the distinctly Mahershala Ali-esque animation style for the character. While Todd Williams voices Blade in the series (not Ali, as his MCU debut is still pending), it's hard not to connect the dots. Could this be Marvel's playful way of easing us into the eventual live-action arrival of the long-anticipated vampire slayer?

Marvel Zombies promises to be a bonkers experience, picking up the narrative thread from What If...?'s first season, where we were left on an Infinity Stone-hunting, zombified Thanos cliffhanger. The four-part limited series, debuting on the 24th of September on Disney+, has a more mature tone than most Marvel projects, and if the trailer is anything to go by, this might just be Marvel’s goriest project yet. There’s a sequence towards the end of the trailer below that shows Spider-Man ripping off multiple Zombie heads in a move that doesn’t feel very Friendly Neighbourhood at all.

Marvel Animation’s Marvel Zombies | Official Trailer | Disney+ - YouTube

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The voice cast is a veritable who's who of MCU stars, reprising their live-action roles. There’s Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Awkwafina as Katy Chen, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Randall Park as Jimmy Woo, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, and Dominique Thorne as Ironheart.

While Marvel Studios has (mercifully) slowed down its release schedule, Marvel Zombies is hitting screens soon, just in time for Halloween. Adapted from the cult-favorite Marvel Comics series and a spinoff of the 2021 What If...? episode, this miniseries is part of the MCU's Phase Six. The What If...? episode gave us the delightful (and horrifying) origin of the zombie plague, starting with Hank Pym rescuing a zombified Janet from the quantum realm.

So, while we wait for the official live-action Blade film (and Mahershala Ali's proper MCU debut), Marvel Zombies offers a wonderfully violent, utterly over-the-top, and potentially very telling sneak peek at the vampire hunter in action. It's not quite the Blade we've been waiting for, but it's a good tease. With the character recently added to Marvel Rivals and a Blade game on the way from Dishonoured developers Arkane Studios, now is the perfect time to ride the character’s popularity and finally introduce him to the MCU.

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