Mahershala Ali on Blade cancellation — and what it says about Marvel
In a new interview, Mahershala Ali finally addressed Blade’s stop-start development — and his remarks help explain why Marvel’s reboot remains mired in delays.
The saga of Mahershala Ali as Blade in the MCU has taken yet another nosedive, and I’d call it the most baffling Marvel failure in recent memory. In the grand tradition of projects that sound too good to mess up, this one’s now sitting in the bin marked 'colossal missed opportunity'.
Ali spelled it out bluntly to GQ: '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… 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.'
A Dream That Never Got Going
Let’s rewind to July 2019. San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel fans in fits, and Kevin Feige brings out Mahershala Ali, fresh off an Oscar win, to announce him as Blade. It was the kind of MCU moment where everyone actually agreed on something – Ali as Blade made perfect sense. The character’s basically been the same in Marvel comics for years: leather coat, sword, gets on with the business of slaying vampires. Simple, effective, a bit cool.
Unfortunately, from that point, the film seemed to drift aimlessly through development hell. There were persistent rumours Marvel couldn’t agree what kind of film they even wanted. Apparently, just letting Blade get on with what Blade’s always done wasn’t considered original enough. Kevin Feige recently admitted they didn’t want to 'simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires', and were desperate to make the story 'unique'. Who knows what that even meant, since being the best vampire hunter around is quite literally Blade’s thing.
Mahershala Ali was publicly announced as Blade in July 2019, but his version never made it beyond early development.
Too Easy to Mess Up?
Ali’s version of Blade was, at least on paper, supposed to be a cornerstone for the MCU post-Endgame. Not some minor side-project. With his profile and the importance of Blade in the comics, it looked like Marvel couldn’t lose. But after years of not settling on a direction, the project stumbled, then wiped out entirely. At various points, you had to wonder if the wider issues with Marvel at the time – constant changes, project reshuffles, general chaos – didn’t just make Blade a casualty of the studio losing its own plot.
What’s so odd is how simple it should’ve been. Give Blade what he’s always had: an undead problem, a slick jacket, and a couple of swords. Instead, Marvel seem to have overthought themselves out of one of the coolest matchups in modern superhero films. If you’re keeping a running tally of Marvel blunders, Ali’s Blade goes straight near the top.