RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Before Marvel had the chance to tease the future of the MCU at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, studio head Kevin Feige was already crossing one long-awaited project off the list. Earlier this month on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Feige admitted defeat in producing a new Blade movie, telling host Josh Horowitz that he felt like “a gigantic loser and failure” for not getting the film, which would have starred Mahershala Ali, “off the ground.”
It seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the in-development-hell movie , which was officially announced at SDCC in 2019 with Ali as the powerful, cool-as-hell vampire slayer (who also happens to be a vampire). Marvel entertained multiple pitches, writers, and directors over the last seven years, including Nic Pizzolato, Michael Green , Beau DeMayo, and Bassam Tariq. Now Ali himself has weighed in, telling GQ that he’s moved on. The one-time True Detective star, now leading Tariq’s new film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, doesn’t think Marvel was really interested in moving forward with the Blade movie.
Asked if we’ll ever see him as Blade, Ali tells GQ interviewer Derek Lawrence, “The best way I can answer this question is, when I look at what is for me, is it was either this [ Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother ] or that [ Blade ]—and I’ll take this.” The two-time Oscar winner takes “no offense,” while noting he’s “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.”
Ali finds his collaboration with Tariq , which will be released September 25 by Amazon MGM Studios, much more in line with the kind of movies that appeal to him: “original work that resonates with people and impacts them in unique ways.” Laughing, Ali reminds GQ that Marvel, a multibillion-dollar studio/media entity, had him under contract and still fumbled things. And now he feels “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.” Before providing that succinct analysis of Marvel’s flailing, Ali also drops this biting bit: “I don’t really want to be known for remakes.”
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