It's been over seven years since Marvel Studios announced that Mahershala Ali was set to star as the titular vampire slayer in a new MCU Blade movie, and after numerous delays and setbacks, the studio recently gave up on trying to bring the reboot to the screen.
We got the disappointing news that the project had been removed from Marvel's slate in 2024, but a report that the movie was only on indefinite hold followed, and we were led to believe that Blade had simply been delayed (again) and would eventually move forward.
However, Ali - who has made it very clear that he was ready and willing to suit up as the Daywalker - recently confirmed that he is 100% "done" with the movie and the character.
"For a year, yeah," Ali said when asked if he'd done any training for the role. "A little more than a year. I'm actually really grateful. They helped pay for [Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother], so thank you. I got to go train for a year, so at this point, I'm so grateful that they made a wonderful contribution to our film."
A few weeks back, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was “feeling like a gigantic loser and failure” for dropping the ball on Blade, and it just so happens that Ali is in full agreement!
“That’s a Kevin Feige question,” Ali said when asked why the studio failed to get Blade off the starting block during an interview with GQ. “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. He should 100% feel that way.”
“I don’t feel any bitterness or disappointment around that," he continued. "I want to be careful of it coming off that way because it’s honestly not how I feel,” Ali explained. “If anything, there’s sort of a relief in the epiphany of like, ‘Oh, ain’t nobody coming to save you. You got to build your boat. They’re not coming. There’s no helicopter coming. Get to cutting wood.'”
Well, Ali does sound a little disappointed, and if not bitter, certainly somewhat miffed about the whole situation, and who could blame him?
Marvel Studios may revisit Blade down the line (there are still said to be plans in place for a Midnight Sons project), but we'd be very surprised if Ali could be convinced to come back on board after how this last attempt was handled.