According to CBR, Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter has been tapped to work on Marvel’s upcoming Blade reboot after her win for the work she did on Black Panther. The astounding degree of skill that Carter’s designs bring to a production have elevated a number of films by not just adorning the actors with an array of beautiful materials, but by storytelling with each costume. For Marvel’s reboot, the designer will be tackling a completely new challenge with Blade‘s character designs being a bit starker than that of the earthy and vibrant Wakanda.
The new development was first announced by film journalist Will Mavity on his personal Twitter, declaring that Carter “…has joined Marvel’s upcoming Blade starring Mahershala Ali.” The designer recently made history when she took home the Oscar for her designs featured in the MCU’s Black Panther, and returned for costume design for the film’s sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the short trailer alone, Carter’s work is stunning, and MCU fans are constantly chatting across social media over character reveals, dissecting every detail of their costume upgrades.
On her website, Carter discussed the inspiration and research that went into her work, and what is, essentially, world-building for all of Wakanda and the fictional country’s rich history. For each and every tribe, Carter finds real-life African dress, pieces, fabrics and patterns, then details and highlights them in her work, making alterations to create a vision that provides background without ever speaking a word. The theme that runs a chord through Carter’s designs is Afrofuturism, which is described as, “a cultural aesthetic that combines science fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the Black experience and connect those from the African Diaspora with their lost ancestry.” From the Dora Milaje armor to Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) design, to King T’Challa’s (Chadwick Boseman) iconic Black Panther armor, Carter is responsible for it all. Simply put, Carter is the real-life Shuri (Letitia Wright).
At the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige announced that the MCU’s reboot of Blade, starring multiple Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) as the day-walking vamp hunter, would begin filming in October. Due to the early state of production, and Marvel and Disney’s reputation for keeping details tightly contained, there is still no word on plot or confirmed characters. A casting announcement was made that brought Aaron Pierre (Krypton) and Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty) onboard, and Mogul Mowgli director Bassam Tariq is tapped to direct. Now, with news that Carter has joined on to design the costumes, fans can look forward to some thrilling new work on a completely different end of the scale than her previous MCU work.
Beginning in stage design, Carter made her first venture into feature film work when she was recruited by Oscar-winning director Spike Lee in the late eighties for his film School Daze. The two cemented a solid working relationship through an additional fourteen films together, including Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington. Other directors that have sought her ingenuity are Lee Daniels, John Singleton, Ava DuVernay on Selma, with designs featured in feature films like Dolemite Is My Name, Coming 2 America, Black Dynamite, Serenity and more.
You can check out more of Carter’s costume designs in Marvel’s Blade, set to premiere in theaters November 3, 2023. Until then, we can all speculate on who’s wearing Carter’s new Black Panther suit in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s official trailer below:
