‘Sinners’ Has One of the Craziest Connections to MCU’s Scrapped Original ‘Blade’ Movie

Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners, has proven to be one of the biggest hits of 2025, with the supernatural horror musical film receiving rave reviews and becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of the year. With a worldwide gross of $365 million, Sinners also stands tall as one of the most profitable original horror projects released this decade. Recently, a new report about the film’s production has created an interesting connection to a long-in-development Marvel Studios film. As it turns out, the wardrobe used for some of the extras in the movie was initially developed for Blade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe film that was first announced in 2019.

The Best Vampire Horror Movie in Decades Adds to Its $365M Box Office With Streaming Domination

Audiences are taking another bite out of Michael B. Jordan’s 97% RT horror smash.

Sev Ohanian, one of the producers of Sinners, would share an interesting story about the film’s pre-production. Given that Sinners is set in 1932, period-accurate set design and costumes were required, primarily because several scenes in the Juke Joint feature hundreds of extras, which necessitated a large number of costumes. As Ohanian would say in the story, Marvel Studios had period-appropriate wardrobes, since an element from an older version of Blade’s script required similar wardrobes:

“Ruth Carter was working on the Blade movie that ended up not shooting. At one point, that movie was going to deal with, and she’s talked about this before, but at one point, that film was going to deal with the past around the same era. She happened to have a warehouse full of period-appropriate clothes. And it was like, ‘Yo, we got to shoot this movie like tomorrow.’ And Marvel was generous enough and kind enough to let us basically purchase it at price.”

Marvel Studios ‘Blade’ Is A Production With Plenty of Wasted Potential

Sammy playing the guitar in Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners'. — Warner Bros.

It’s fascinating that Blade, the story of a half-human, half-vampire character, also took place in a period setting similar to Coogler’s Sinners, another vampire movie. It has been a tedious process to get Blade moving, with the project currently lacking a release date or a production start date at the time of writing. The movie has had a revolving door of writers and directors since it was first announced, with Marvel Studios seemingly having trouble nailing down what the story should be.

Now knowing that Sinners used some of the wardrobe that was made for Blade, it’s apparent that the version of the MCU script that the costumes were made for was pretty far along in pre-production. Marvel Studios has always kept the development of their films close to the chest, with only basic tidbits of information being officially released as part of special features or making-of documentaries. The specific reason as to why this version of Blade was suddenly halted is anyone’s guess.

Another interesting overlap between the two productions is Delroy Lindo, who plays a key role in Sinners as musician Delta Slim and was also once attached to star in Blade in a supporting role. Lindo has previously expressed his disappointment about the project being stalled, saying that it was “conceptually exciting.” Hopefully, some version of the film will still be able to move forward at Marvel Studios, as the idea of a vampire movie set in a period setting within the MCU sounds exciting. However, at this point, it will probably feel like it is ripping off Sinners.

Source: ComingSoon.net