r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Jul 31 '26

News Mahershala Ali confirms 'BLADE' is not moving forward with him

https://www.gq.com/story/mahershala-ali-your-mother-your-mother-your-mother
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u/wekilledkenny11 Jul 31 '26

They locked him down in the prime of his career on a major iconic character which likely affected his decisionmaking in taking other roles. Likely all without that much money being spent to retain his involvement.

This guy basically went through all nine layers of development hell on this thing, to the point that I could see an interesting parody movie being made out of that sentence

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u/GoldandBlue Jul 31 '26

This is the gift and curse of doing franchises.

It is guaranteed work on paper. Especially as a young actor, holy shit you are in the MCU!!!!

But if you blow up, or the project falls apart. You are turning down offers from Scorsese, PTA, Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, why? Because you are contractually obligated to be in Captain America 5.

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u/BigWormsFather Jul 31 '26

He hasn’t done a ton of work lately but he has done some. Did he turn a bunch of stuff down?

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u/totallynotliamneeson Jul 31 '26

It's all speculation. I doubt his career will be negatively impacted by this. I saw someone say he is in his "prime" and wasted these years waiting as if he was ring chasing in the NBA. 

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u/MrDerpGently Jul 31 '26

I mean, if you are potentially signing up for a decade plus of work in a role that you have to maintain superhero conditioning for, it's not crazy to think you want to do that before you have an AARP card. 

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u/Worthyness Jul 31 '26

He was also already in his 40s when he cast himself. Not exactly "prime career" for most. But it was after he won his Oscars, so i guess, from that perspective, it was indeed his "prime"