Mahershala Ali has finally spoken out about Marvel's failed Blade reboot, and he's over it.
"Not with me," Ali said when asked by GQ if Blade was still in the works. "No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on."
The statement comes just days after Marvel boss Kevin Feige said he felt like a "gigantic loser and failure" for not getting the movie off the ground with Ali.
Continued Ali: "Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie. I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I. But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question."
To sum up the long and tumultuous saga: a new Blade movie, one that would introduce the half-vampire hero into the MCU, was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2021 with two-time Academy Award winner Ali as the titular hero. Bassam Tariq was initially announced as director, but exited the film a month before production was set to begin in 2022 due to creative differences. Some of these creative differences were reportedly due to early scripts that had Blade filming an early 1900s period piece of sorts, rather than set in modern day or on Earth-616 (which is Marvel's main universe).
French filmmaker Yann Demange took over later that year, but production was halted once again due to the WGA strikes, which pushed its 2024 release date to 2025. In 2023, the film was given an (exciting) R rating. In 2024, it was officially removed from the Marvel release calendar.
Ali can be seen next in Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which he said made good use of the swordsman skills he learned while shooting Blade.
For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
