Kevin Feige once said he feels “like a gigantic loser and failure” that Marvel‘s planned Blade reboot never came to life with Mahershala Ali; and the two-time Oscar winner agrees.
Ali confirmed in a July interview with GQ that he would not be leading Blade, after being announced to star in the project seven years ago at Comic-Con 2019. And now, in a new profile with GQ, the actor is reiterating that he doesn’t know why the project never came to fruition.
When asked why the film didn’t happen, Ali said, “That’s a Kevin Feige question.” He continued, “They had, as you said, a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and you got billions of dollars. That’s a question for them. I don’t mean anything personal to you, but I don’t know why it didn’t. To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I just know that it was — Kevin, he said it was the biggest failure of his career and I agree.”
Ali referenced comments the Marvel Studios president made during a July appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Feige said he was “very excited” they were able to bring in original Blade star Wesley Snipes for an appearance in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, but that he felt “like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get [the Blade reboot] off the ground with Mahershala.”
GQ‘s Zach Baron read Feige’s quote back to Ali, and he said he agreed with his sentiment. “I agree with him. I agree with him one hundred percent. One hundred percent. He should feel that way. I agree,” Ali said.
The Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother star further explained that he “spent a year training” for the film, and Marvel kept “pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing.”
“I trained so hard I blew my knee out. I was just waiting for them,” he said. “I’m still training. I’m training. I’m learning sword work. Name the martial art, I’m training in it. And I literally moved, uprooted my family, moved to Atlanta. We are there waiting to go. And they just keep pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing it. It doesn’t happen. And then it’s a strike.”
However, Ali said he was “grateful it didn’t happen because I don’t think we would get this film,” referencing Your Mother, directed by Bassam Tariq, who was attached to helm the Blade reboot. Ali reflected on reuniting with the director for the new film during The Hollywood Reporter‘s inaugural Game Recognize Game series.
“For Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, I got to unite with a director by the name of Bassam Tariq,” he said. “We were originally supposed to work on Blade together. That didn’t happen, but we were able to use that training and the time we spent together and put it to good use on Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”