Mahershala Ali drops the deal with Blade and criticizes Marvel

After years of postponements and rewrites, the actor confirms that his reboot of Blade will not see the light of day. He wants to move on.

It was one of the most anticipated projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and one of the most complicated to bring to fruition.

Announced with great fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, the reboot of Blade worn by Mahershala Ali now seems definitively abandoned. After years of delays, director changes and rewrites, the Oscar-winning actor has just confirmed that he has moved on.

Asked by GQ on the future of the film, Mahershala Ali explained that he had accepted that the project would not be part of his journey:

“I’ve been doing this professionally for almost thirty years, and one thing I’ve learned is that what’s done for you is done for you, and what’s not done isn’t. For one reason or another, this project wasn’t for me.”

Somewhat disillusioned, the actor still seems to hold a grudge against Marvel and says:

“I was under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they had wanted to make the film, we would have made this film (…) I feel ready to move on, the questions about Blade are for them. They didn’t want to make the film so it’s up to them to answer.“

Mahershala Ali also explains that the abandonment of Blade allowed him to devote himself to another project with Bassam Tariq, notably using the experience acquired during more than a year of physical preparation to play the famous vampire hunter. “In a way, I feel creatively reconciled with this experience, in my own journey.”

Marvel Studios has not yet responded to these statements. However, studio president Kevin Feige had already admitted his frustration at the inability to launch the film. In the podcast Happy Sad Confusedhe even confided feeling “like a huge loser, for me, it’s a failure” for not having succeeded in bringing this new version of Blade.

For now, Marvel has not announced the future of the character. Blade could always return to the MCU in another form, but one thing now seems certain: this version with Mahershala Ali is now to be put in the cupboard of unrealized Hollywood superhero projects, alongside the Superman of Nicolas Cage or Batman by Darren Aronofsky…