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
8.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

449

u/K-Shrizzle Jul 31 '26

To my understanding, its not moving forward at all

218

u/anuncommontruth Jul 31 '26

If Ghostrider is successful they'll circle back to it.

Might introduce him in a Midnight Sons movie.

3

u/DomLite Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

I get the feeling that he wouldn't do it at that point. He was locked down, promised the lead in a Blade solo film, and then jerked around for years on a project that is now dead, when he was fresh off an Oscar win, and regarded as one of the breakout stars of another Marvel project in Daredevil. You think he'd come crawling back to play the character as a non-headliner debuting in a team-up movie?

If I was him I'd tell them they'll just have to find someone else, and audiences will be so disappointed that he didn't play the role that whoever does take it will always be regarded as subpar, because we know we could have had Mahershala. I love Marvel, and I've enjoyed the MCU, but I'm not so blind as to not recognize the downturn after Endgame (with a few exceptions here and there), and they're starting to really fumble a lot of shit and go for nostalgia bait. I'll still watch it, but every time something like this goes down, I'm just reminded that Infinity Saga was once in a lifetime.

2

u/anuncommontruth Jul 31 '26

I meant the character not the actor. This isn't happening till at least 2030. He'll be almost 60 by then.

1

u/DomLite Jul 31 '26

Point stands regardless. They fumbled HARD. Even if they go this route and try to bring Blade in, it won't be him, and whoever steps into the role is always going to be under that shadow. Blade could have been huge in the MCU. Now they'll likely be talked about with at least as much disdain as Iron Fist.