Seven years ago, Mahershala Ali was announced as Blade at San Diego Comic-Con. Fans were pumped… but as we know, the Marvel project remained stuck in development hell for years, cycling through writers and directors with no clear end in sight. Finally, Ali confirmed he was done, and I can’t say I blame him.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was candid about the failure of the Blade movie earlier this year, saying he felt like “a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.” That’s something the actor agrees with.
“That’s a Kevin Feige question,” Ali told GQ when asked why Marvel couldn’t get Blade to work. “They had, as you said, a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and you got billions of dollars. That’s a question for them. I don’t mean anything personal to you, but I don’t know why it didn’t. To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I just know that it was—Kevin, he said it was the biggest failure of his career and I agree. 100%. He should feel that way.“
During that long development, Ali was turning down work, training hard, and even moving his family. “I’m saying no to things in that time because they own my schedule basically. I spent a year training. Yeah. I trained so hard ’til I blew my knee out,” he said. “I literally moved, uprooted my family. Moved to Atlanta. We’re there waiting to go and they just keep pushing it back pushing it back pushing it and we don’t…it doesn’t happen.“
Blade was initially slated to be directed by Bassam Tariq, but Marvel reportedly grew concerned that he wasn’t the best fit for the project. The studio gave Mahershala Ali a list of potential replacements, but the actor conducted his own search and handpicked Yann Demange, who also exited the project.
The film was reportedly just weeks away from starting production in 2023 when the WGA strike hit and was followed by the SAG strike. Everything shut down, but Blade was left dormant even when the strikes concluded. Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre, who were reportedly attached to the project, departed, and new writers were brought in to tackle the script. As it stands, Ali’s only appearance in the MCU has been a vocal cameo in the post-credit scene of Eternals.
It’s possible Marvel will try again, but they will have to do so without Mahershala Ali.
Next up for Ali is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an action thriller written and directed by Bassam Tariq, the original director of Marvel’s Blade.
The official description reads: “From writer-director Bassam Tariq, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother stars Mahershala Ali as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.” The film is set for a September 25 release.