Mahershala Ali, the two-time Oscar-winning actor tapped to star as Blade, has voiced his agreement with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige's self-assessment of the protracted and ultimately canceled reboot as a "gigantic loser and failure."
Feige had previously described the situation surrounding the Blade film as a personal failure during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. In a recent conversation with GQ, Ali echoed this sentiment, expressing his bewilderment as to why the project never materialized despite his commitment.
"To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I just know that Kevin said it was the biggest failure of his career, and I agree," Ali stated. When pressed by the interviewer who suggested Feige felt like a "giant loser and failure," Ali responded, "I agree with him, one hundred percent. He should feel that way."
Ali detailed his extensive preparation for the role, which included a year of dedicated physical training and martial arts study. He noted that he relocated his family to Atlanta in anticipation of production, only for the project to be repeatedly delayed. The actor revealed he trained so intensely that he sustained a knee injury. Some of the costumes developed for the Blade film were later repurposed for the movie Sinners, while the combat skills Ali honed for the vampire hunter have been utilized in his latest film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
The Marvels' Blade project has been in development for approximately seven years since Ali's initial meeting with the studio in 2019. With Ali no longer attached and the project facing significant hurdles, the prospect of seeing his iteration of Blade on screen appears increasingly unlikely.