Over seven years after Marvel Studios announed plans for an upcoming ‘Blade’ reboot, actor Mahershala Ali, who was set to play the vampire superhero, has confirmed that the project has hit the end of the road.
Mahershala Ali confirms ‘Blade’ has been shelved
The Oscar-winner confirmed that he is no longer attached to the project, thus bringing an end to speculation and anticipation for what is said to be one of the most troubled productions. Ali, who was announced as the new Blade during the San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, revealed in an interview with GQ that his film is no longer moving forward.In a statement to the magazine, he said, “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.”He continued, “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 … 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.”
‘Blade’ faces multiple roadblocks
Marvel’s Blade reboot has faced numerous setbacks since its announcement. The film was originally set to be directed by Bassam Tariq, but he exited the project in 2022, just months before filming was expected to begin. The project subsequently went through multiple writers, release date changes and production delays, with Marvel eventually removing the film from its release calendar.It was long believed that the actor would join the MCU’s ‘Midnight Sons’ lineup with Ghost Rider, Morbius, Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night and more.
‘Blade’ training wasn’t wasted
Although the reboot never took off, Ali eventually reunited with Tariq for the upcoming feature, ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’, which is scheduled to release this September. Tariq recalled witnessing Ali’s extensive preparation for the vampire hunter role. “Mahershala is an athlete, and I saw the way he uses a sword on Blade. The first time he was doing sword practice on Blade, the stuff coming back was incredible,” he said.Ali also reflected on his training, and admitted, “As a former athlete, I’ve dreamed of doing my own stunts. I was very excited to do stunts in Blade and trained for a long time for that, so it was a huge relief to get to put that work to use [in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother] … When I look at this and Blade, I couldn’t have done both, and the reason this even exists is that that project fell apar.”He went on to add, “And I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for Blade. In that way, I feel creatively redeemed on some level.”Just last week, the MCU announced Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider, further adding anticipation to the epic ‘Midnight Sons’ team-up in the next phase of the cinematic universe. Go to Source
