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Mahershala Ali Says He’s Done With Marvel’s Abandoned 'Blade' Reboot

He echoed Kevin Feige’s admission of failure and described how years of stalled development exacted personal and professional costs.

Overview

  • Citing his recent GQ interview, Ali said he agrees with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige’s July remark that failing to get the Blade film with him off the ground was a major failure.
  • The reboot was first announced in 2019, went through multiple directors and at least five writers, and was removed from Marvel/Disney’s release calendar after repeated delays.
  • Ali said he spent more than a year training for the role, suffered a knee injury, relocated his family to Atlanta and turned down other work because Marvel effectively controlled his schedule.
  • He has moved on from that iteration of Blade and repurposed his training into a new film, reuniting with original Blade attaché Bassam Tariq on Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
  • Feige has blamed Marvel’s rapid expansion into Disney+ projects for development strain, and while Marvel still owns the character the studio’s mishandling of this version is now public record.