After seven years of development hell, false starts, rewrites, departed directors and endless questions about whether it would ever happen, Mahershala Ali is done with Marvel Studios’ “Blade.” Not waiting for another rewrite. Not waiting for another director. Done.
In a new GQ interview tied to his upcoming action film “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” Ali was asked whether Marvel was any closer to finally getting its “Blade” reboot in front of cameras. His answer was about as definitive as it gets.
Ali candidly admitted that, as far as he’s concerned, his version of “Blade” is dead.
“Not with me,” he said about whether he’d be involved with the Marvel film. “The best way I can answer this question is, when I look at what is for me, is it was either this or that—and I’ll take this—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.”
“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother feels very much in alignment with the type of work I want to be known for,” he continued. “I don’t really want to be known for remakes. I’d love to do original work that resonates with people and impacts them in unique ways.”
Then Ali got much blunter about Marvel. “So, I’m good. [Laughs.] 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,” he said. “When I look at this and ‘Blade,’ I couldn’t have done both, and the reason this even exists is because that project fell apart and Bassam had the time, space, energy, and focus to go and write this and then re-approach me.”
“And I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for ‘Blade,’” Ali continued. “In that way, 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.”
The timing is very interesting as Marvel’s Kevin Feige had basically conceded the defeat 11 days earlier. Speaking to Happy Sad Confused, the Marvel chief said he felt “like a gigantic loser and failure” that the studio never got Ali’s movie off the ground, even as he celebrated bringing Wesley Snipes back for “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Ali putting the responsibility squarely on Marvel is a little more complicated, though. He had far more creative influence over “Blade” than actors typically have on MCU movies, and that was long rumored to be part of the difficulty getting everyone on the same page. A 2024 THR report said Ali had exercised an “inordinate amount of influence” over the project. He disliked Marvel’s choices for a new director, conducted his own search, and handpicked Yann Demange. Ali also pushed to bring Nic Pizzolatto aboard for another script rewrite. At the same time, he was said to be increasingly frustrated with Marvel over how long everything was taking.
The irony is that Ali is now working with Bassam Tariq, Marvel’s first director on “Blade,” on “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.” Tariq left the superhero movie in 2022, and Ali says its collapse gave Tariq the time to write their new film and freed him to make it. Even the year-plus of “Blade” training eventually went into the new movie.
And this lands at a pretty bad moment for Marvel. “Wonder Man” was canceled yesterday, just four months after Disney+ announced a second season. The Yahya Abdul-Mateen II series had strong reviews, a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, and earned Abdul-Mateen an Emmy nomination, but never became much of a streaming hit. Marvel has given no reason for reversing the renewal.
That cancellation has only fed frustration among fans over Marvel’s Black superheroes. “Blade” went nowhere for seven years, “Wonder Man” got renewed and then canceled, “Ironheart” doesn’t look like it will receive a second season, and “Armor Wars” still hasn’t materialized. Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), left stranded in an X-Men universe at the end of “The Marvels,” is also absent from the announced “Avengers: Doomsday” cast, while Steve Rogers appears to be taking a prominent role again despite Sam Wilson only recently becoming Captain America.
There are different circumstances behind all of those projects, and “Black Panther 3” is still moving forward, obviously. But for fans who have watched one Black-led Marvel project after another get delayed, sidelined, reworked, or canceled, Ali walking away from “Blade” isn’t going to help.
Marvel will likely still make “Blade” in some form, and the just-announced “Ghost Rider” gives Marvel an obvious way into the supernatural corner of the MCU that “Blade” was once supposed to help open up. But after seven years of trying to build the movie around an Oscar-winner, Marvel now needs another actor, another creative direction, or perhaps another long reset for the Daywalker.
