Mahershala Ali Says His Marvel “Blade ”Movie“ ”Isn’t Happening: ‘If They Wanted to Do It, We Would’ve Done It’

Tommy McArdleFri, July 31, 2026 at 7:43 PM UTC

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Mahershala Ali on June 23, 2025; Wesley Snipes in 2002’s Blade 2Credit: TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic; Bruce Talamon/New Line/Kobal/Shutterstock -

Mahershala Ali confirmed he has moved on from Marvel’s Blade project after years of delays and creative setbacks

Ali stars in the upcoming film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which he says aligns with his creative goals

Marvel Studios cited script issues as the reason Blade stalled and recently announced new projects with other actors

Mahershala Ali is no longer interested in making his long-planned Blade movie happen.

Marvel Studios announced that Ali, 52, would portray Blade — the human-vampire hybrid also known as Eric Brooks, whom Wesley Snipes famously brought to the big screen in the 1990s — back in 2019. Aside from Ali’s voice cameo in the 2021 movie Eternals, the project never materialized, and in a new interview with GQ, Ali shared that he’s moved on from the Blade project as he promotes a new movie titled Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.

“Not with me. The best way I can answer this question is, when I look at what is for me, is it was either this or that—and I’ll take this,” Ali said, when he was asked if he and Marvel Studios have any future with Blade at the moment. “No offense to them.” I’ve 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. So I have to move on, and I have moved on.”

Ali was slated to make Blade with writer-director Bassam Tariq, who left the project in 2022, as Varietyreported at the time. Tariq, 39, instead turned toward Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, and Ali followed suit. The movie sees Ali portray a Muslim hitman in Houston whose wife suddenly dies, according to GQ, and Ali told the outlet that the film “feels very much in alignment with the type of work I want to be known for.”

Mahershala Ali on Jan. 3, 2026Credit: Lisa O'CONNOR / AFP via Getty

“I don’t really want to be known for remakes. I’d love to do original work that resonates with people and impacts them in unique ways. So, I’m good,” he said with a laugh, about the seemingly abandoned Blade reboot. “Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie. When I look at this and Blade, I couldn’t have done both, and the reason this even exists is because that project fell apart and Bassam had the time, space, energy, and focus to go and write this and then re-approach me. And I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for Blade. In that way, I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I.”

“But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them,” Ali added. “They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question.”

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A representative for Walt Disney Studios, which owns Marvel Studios, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Ali’s new comments on Blade come days after Marvel Studios executive Kevin Feige told podcaster Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he is “feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.” Marvel did bring back Snipes, 64, in a cameo role as Blade for 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Feige also said in a 2025 conference with reporters that the studio “didn’t feel confident” they had a good enough script for Blade to begin filming, as Deadline reported. “We didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us,” he added at that time.

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Wesley Snipes in 1998’s BladeCredit: Warner Bros.

Feige announced during Marvel’s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 25 that Ryan Gosling will join the cinematic universe in a reboot of the Ghost Rider movies. The studio also revealed the same day that British actor David Jonsson will star in the next Black Panther movie from writer-director Ryan Coogler.

Ali’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother hits theaters Sept. 25.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”