It’s been seven years since Mahershala Ali was announced as Marvel’s Blade, but the acclaimed actor says that his involvement in the project is officially dead and buried.
According to the two-time Oscar winner, if the project does get off the ground, it won’t be with him. Ali told GQ during an interview published on Friday that he has “moved on” from the plan to play the iconic vampire hunter that Wesley Snipes made famous in the ‘90s and early aughts.
“If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it,” Ali told GQ.
Last month, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he wasn’t proud to have let the project slip through his fingers, saying, “I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”
In the same interview, Feige said he was very excited to have gotten Snipes back “for a time” as Blade in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
In Snipes’ scene in the 2024 Marvel hit, he may have answered any lingering questions on the matter just before blowing up a building with a missile launcher: “There’s only been one Blade,” he said, “there’s only ever gonna be one Blade.”
The project had notably gone through a slew of writers and directors; writer-director Bassam Tariq stepped away in 2022, work was stalled due to the writers’ strike in 2023, and the project just couldn’t seem to get its bearings amid all the brouhaha. During Ali’s interview with GQ, the outlet asked if “Blade” was any closer to becoming a reality.
“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,” he said, referring to “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” his forthcoming action-adventure film penned and directed by Tariq that hits theaters Sept. 25.
“No offense 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,” he continued. “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, 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.”
Though Ali seemed to be at peace with what happened with “Blade,” he still threw some shade Marvel’s way.
“Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie,” he said. “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,” he continued. “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.”