Blade Star Mahershala Ali Provides A Disappointing Update For The Marvel Reboot

Marvel fans who had once held out hope for a "Blade" reboot starring the great Mahershala Ali have been suffering from death by a thousand cuts, but this latest update may just put this one to bed for good. The prospects for this troubled production weren't looking all that great to begin with, of course, particularly given Marvel boss Kevin Feige's recent comments calling himself a "gigantic loser" for being unable to get this one across the finish line. But we'd yet to hear from the star himself on exactly how he feels about the way things went down on one of the most exciting Marvel Cinematic Universe projects we've ever heard, which was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

Now we have. In a new profile with GQ, Ali is finally opening up about his ill-fated "Blade" movie ... and it seems like he's as eager as anyone to simply put it in the rearview mirror. After admitting that, "I didn't feel great about the fact that things finished the way that they did [with 'Blade']; I like seeing things through," Ali sounded off on the experience of watching this fall apart for reasons outside of his control. "Blade" fans, brace yourselves. As he explained:

"You had me under contract, [Marvel Studios] have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would've done the movie. So, we're not doing the movie [...] 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."

Brutal stuff. It sounds like that well is simply too poisoned, at this point. He may be the ultimate Daywalker, but it's safe to say this cursed "Blade" movie can be put in the ground.

Far be it from me to act like moviemaking is an easy business, but sometimes it's a simple one: When you have talent like Mahershala Ali ready and willing to make a superhero movie for you, you move heaven and earth to get it done. That goes double for a collaboration with writer/director Bassam Tariq, who was originally attached to the project before stepping down in September of 2022 – which then kicked off a carousel of directors coming in and leaving the production. We'll likely never know all the specific creative and business reasons why this ultimately imploded so spectacularly, but fans have every right to feel strongly about this setback ... and, worse yet, what it says about the state of Marvel lately.

It might seem odd to make this point right when the studio is rebounding in a big way with the early box office success of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and the (practically guaranteed) hit to come in "Avengers: Doomsday" later this year. But what about all the projects that haven't made much of a splash recently — and, more importantly, what they seem to have in common? "Captain America: Brave New World" was meant to be Anthony Mackie's coming-out party as our newest Avenger, but behind-the-scenes issues and real-world political headaches promptly put a stop to that. Plus, we're still waiting on the Disney+ series-turned-movie "Armor Wars" starring Don Cheadle that we've heard exactly nothing more about for quite some time now. Combine that with "Wonder Man" Season 2 getting cancelled despite previously being renewed and, uh, the optics aren't great, folks!

Marvel's priorities would appear to be in question these days, but we'll see if it can right the ship.