Mahershala Ali has issued a number of updates on Marvel’s M.I.A. Blade movie while promoting his new film, Jurassic World Rebirth, and none are particularly positive.
Blade was first announced at San Diego Comic Con back in 2019 and if all had gone to plan, the movie would have launched this November. But the troubled project has cycled through several directors at this point, and now, six years after it was announced, Blade starring Mahershala Ali is no closer to becoming a reality.
Indeed, it's been eight months since Blade was removed from Marvel’s release schedule — and the studio has yet to confirm a new release date. That said, a month after the film was pulled from the calendar, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige insisted the company still planned to make a Blade movie happen at some point.
"We are committed to Blade. We love the character, we love Mahershala's take on him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still figuring out how it fits into our schedule, we let the audience know. You're all up to date on what's happening," he said during an interview with Omelete in November 2024. "But I can tell you that the character will indeed make it to the MCU.”
But what does Mahershala Ali have to say about it? Speaking to Variety, the Oscar-winning actor issued a brief and vague update that will do little to convince fans Blade is on the way. "Call Marvel," Ali said. "I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready."
The Hollywood Reporter also asked Ali for an update on Blade. Here, he said a little more, but it still sounds very much like nothing’s happening any time soon.
“I would love for Blade to happen; we’ll see, I don’t know where Marvel is at right now,” he said. “I’m just looking for the next great part, I really am.”
Various people involved with what Blade was have spoken about the demise of the project. In April, rapper and artist Flying Lotus took to X / Twitter to discuss his role in the project, and he let slip that whatever Blade once was is, in fact, no more. "I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new Blade movie before it fell thru," the DJ explained. "Maybe it'll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho."
The day prior to Flying Lotus’ tweet, Sinners costume designer Ruth E. Carter confirmed during an appearance on The John Campea Show that she was set to design costumes for Blade prior to production falling apart — and that the film was supposed to be set in the 1920s.
And actor Delroy Lindo — who was also attached to star in the film alongside Ali as Blade for a period of time — also opened up about the demise of the production just days before Carter’s reveal.
"When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input," he recently told Entertainment Weekly. "And in the various conversations I had with producers, the writer, the director at the time, it was all leading into being very inclusive. It was really exciting conceptually, but it was also exciting in terms of the character that was going to form. And then, for whatever reason, it just went off the rails."
Meanwhile, MCU film Deadpool & Wolverine, which saw Wesley Snipes reprise his role as Blade in cameo form, was an enormous hit, making $1.3 billion at the global box office. Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds has called for Snipes' Blade to get a send-off film akin to Hugh Jackman's Logan, saying 1998's Blade and its sequels created a market for superhero films to exist, and without them there wouldn't be the likes of X-Men or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"There is no Fox Marvel Universe or MCU without Blade first creating a market," Reynolds said on X/Twitter. "He’s Marvel Daddy. Please retweet for a Logan-like send-off."
Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
