Mahershala Ali arrives on the red carpet of The 90th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, March 4, 2018. Credit/Provider: Phil McCarten / A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: A.M.P.A.S.
Preview:
That all seemed like a recipe for success, but since then we’ve only heard Ali once, in a vocal cameo at the end of ‘Eternals.’ While Blade also popped up in the ‘Marvel Zombies’ animated series, he was there voiced by Todd Williams.
“Against an army of Immortals, one warrior must draw first blood.”
Release Date: Aug 21, 1998
Run Time: 2 hr 1 min
Budget: $45,000,000
Now Ali, in an interview with GQ, has confirmed that he’s no longer involved with the ‘Blade’ project –– and puts the blame firmly at the door of Marvel and Disney. More on that below…
Related Article: Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Loses Another Director as Yann Demange Departs
What has happened with Marvel’s ‘Blade’ so far?
Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’ logo. Photo: Marvel Studios.
Roughly two years after the big Comic-Con reveal, ‘Mogul Mowgli’ director Bassam Tariq was hired to make the movie and with Stacy Osei-Kuffour on board to write the script, the movie was headed towards a shoot planned for late in 2022 and a November 3rd, 2023, release date.
That, obviously, did not happen. Multiple reports of script issues led to changes. Marvel veteran writer Eric Pearson, who had worked on ‘Fantastic Four’ was the most recent person hired to try and salvage the ‘Blade’ script. Michael Starrbury, Nic Pizzolatto and Michael Green wrote previous drafts.
Tariq jumped ship in September 2022, but there was hope when ‘White Boy Rick’s Demange was hired to replace him. Subsequently, Demange departed.
‘Blade’ failure: Mahershala Ali talks
Mahershala Ali attends the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images.
Here’s what the Oscar winner had to say about his moving on from the role:
“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 … 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.”
So, is Blade dead (er, undead) at Marvel? Highly unlikely, though you’ve got to figure Feige and co. will be more cautious about announcing anything to do with it before everything is in place.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’ logo. Photo: Marvel Studios.