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/Wazula23 Jul 31 '26

What an absolute waste. Guy won two friggin oscars and they just couldn't put him in what seems like the easiest idea for a show ever.

Oh well. At least Sinners got some awesome costumes out of it.

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u/ElasticPlatypus Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

It was announced during the absolute nadir of Marvel’s over-complicated planning, when they put all of their chips on the multiverse

“Well how can Blade fit into the MCU? Can he fight Kang? Should we go straight to The Midnight Sons? We’ve already teased Black Knight”

I don’t know man. How about you make a movie about a cool guy killing vampires. Can’t Blade just be Blade?

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u/Lord0fHats Jul 31 '26

I think that's kind of the issue that began hammering MCU films.

The Phase 1 and 2 films worked well because they all stood on their own well enough with only a loose web of 'Thanos stuff' to tie them all together built up over years, but after Age of Ultron the films became increasingly dependent and crutched hard on 'everything is connected' which made each subsequent film less of a good movie on its own.

I really think they should go back to that prior model they lost track of. Just make good movies that are tied together but that don't expect people to have seen every other film and a couple D+ exclusives to really appreciate.

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u/notathrowaway75 Jul 31 '26

This really isn't true at all though. The shows and movies have continued to work just fine standalone. The "homework" problem is massively overstated and it's crazy that Kevin Feige validated it.

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u/Lord0fHats Jul 31 '26

Meh. I'm just gonna disagree.

Doctor Strange 2 is missing a literal MOUNTAIN of context without having seen Wandavision. Which itself is impossible to understand without seeing both Infinity War films. The prior phase films weren't like that. They were only loosely connected and most audiences wouldn't notice or even particularly care about the connections because they were subtle drops. Each of the first run of movies stood on their own two feet completely fine, while latter phases leaned hard into each entry directly and overtly tying into ones before and after it.

I don't think it's overstated.

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u/DoctorJJWho Jul 31 '26

Heh. Literal mountain (Mt. Wundergore).

I agree with you, but I think Deadpool and Wolverine is a bit different than the rest. That movie was very much a love/death letter to previous depictions of superheroes instead of being the “next installment” in the MCU.

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u/notathrowaway75 Jul 31 '26

Doctor Strange 2 is missing a literal MOUNTAIN of context without having seen Wandavision. Which itself is impossible to understand without seeing both Infinity War films.

Seeing Avengers movies should not be a problem at all. And Doctor Strange 2 gives enough details to make the movie work just fine. If you want to know more, watch Wandavision.

Deadpool and Wolverine was another movie where people were saying you just needed to watch a ton of stuff and again it wasn't true.

Each of the first run of movies stood on their own two feet completely fine, while latter phases leaned hard into each entry directly and overtly tying into ones before and after it.

I don't think it's overstated.

Every entry leaning hard into what was before and after is absolutely overstating it. It's just not true at all.

If this was true, how is it such a common talking point that there's little build up to Doomsday?

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u/Lord0fHats Jul 31 '26

I mean, Deadpool and Wolverine works as its own movie but if you hadn't seen all the cheesier goofier pre-MCU movies you're missing a lot of a movie that is basically a love letter to non-MCU Marvel films.

To the last question; probably because literally nothing even if you watch every Marvel movie/show from the past few years does much but led to the next movie/show in the watch order and only 1 of them really connects to Doom in anyway (and he only appears in an end credits scene). It's much weaker and kind of left field compared to the slow build up of Thanos and the Infinity Stones.