After seven years of promises and disappointments surrounding the MCU’s Blade reboot, Mahershala Ali has finally broken his silence and made it clear where he stands. It’s hard to fully comprehend why the Marvel Cinematic Universe decided to drop its Blade project. First announced back in 2019 at San Diego Comic-Con, it was set to be a blood-soaked reboot of the film series, which centered on the vampire hunter originally played by Wesley Snipes. There were many exciting teases, including the promise that it would be a rare R-rated MCU movie and Ali would be “ruthless” as the titular half-human, half-vamp. Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange were attached as directors before they exited, and the original X-Men ‘97 writer Beau DeMayo worked on a draft of the script. Credit: 20th Century Fox But in between all of this, the project has been stuck in development hell, with Disney constantly pushing back its release until eventually removing it from the schedule altogether. Further confusion arose when Snipes reprised the role for a cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine. Earlier this month, Feige said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.” Throughout all of this, Ali has never spoken out about being kept in limbo this whole time. But now he’s broken his silence in an interview with GQ – and he’s officially moved on. In response to Feige’s comment and whether Blade could still be a reality, Ali replied, “Not with me. The best way I can answer this question is, when I look at what is for me, is it was either this or that – and I’ll take this.” The Oscar-winning actor is referring to the upcoming adventure film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, starring Ali and directed by one of the Blade reboot’s former filmmakers, Bassam Tariq. “No offence to them. 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,” he continued. “If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on. “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother feels very much in alignment with the type of work I want to be known for. I don’t really want to be known for remakes. I’d love to do original work that resonates with people and impacts them in unique ways.” Ali said that he’s good, adding, “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. “When I look at this and Blade, I couldn’t have done both, and the reason this even exists is because that project fell apart and Bassam had the time, space, energy, and focus to go and write this and then re-approach me. “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 in my own journey between me, myself, and I. “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.” For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured images credit: Gage Skidmore/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock Post navigation Next story
