Mahershala Ali is opening up about the extraordinary amount of time, physical preparation, and professional opportunities he sacrificed waiting for Marvel Studios to make Blade — and he agrees with Kevin Feige’s brutal assessment of the studio’s failure to get the movie off the ground.
Marvel Studios announced Ali as its new Blade at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019. Seven years later, the two-time Academy Award winner never got to make the movie.
During a new interview with GQ, Ali was asked what ultimately happened to the perpetually delayed Marvel production.
“That’s a Kevin Feige question,” Ali responded.
He said that despite being the star of the movie, he still doesn’t have a satisfactory explanation for why Marvel couldn’t make it happen.
“To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen,” Ali said.
The interviewer then referenced Feige’s own comments about the Blade debacle. Earlier this year, the Marvel Studios president described himself as a “gigantic loser and failure” for being unable to make the movie with Ali.
Ali didn’t disagree.
“I agree with him,” Ali said. “I agree with him 100%. 100%, he should feel that way.”
Ali’s comments take on considerably more weight when combined with his account of everything he did preparing for a movie that never happened.
Ali Says He Trained Until He Injured Himself
Ali wasn’t simply sitting around waiting for Marvel to settle on a screenplay.
He says he spent approximately a year physically preparing to become Blade.
“I spent a year training,” Ali told GQ. That preparation included sword training and martial arts work, and Ali says he eventually pushed himself hard enough that he suffered a knee injury.
“I trained so hard till I blew my knee out,” he recalled.
Blade in Marvel’s Blade (Arkane Lyon)
READ: James Gunn Fires Back at DC Fan on Social Media Over Lanterns Criticism
Ali continued preparing as Marvel repeatedly moved the production schedule.
The delays eventually affected his family as well. Ali says he moved his family to Atlanta in anticipation of production finally beginning.
“We’re there waiting to go,” he said, but the cameras never started rolling.
Instead, according to Ali, Marvel kept “pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing it.”
Marvel’s Delays Cost Ali Other Work
Ali also revealed that the repeated delays affected which other projects he could accept.
Because Marvel controlled his schedule while preparing Blade, Ali says he was forced to decline other roles.
“I’m saying no to things in that time because they own my schedule basically,” he explained. That puts the Blade development saga into a very different perspective.
Mahershala Ali as Cottonmouth in Luke Cage – Disney+
Ali wasn’t merely attached to a movie that eventually fell apart. According to his account, he physically trained for the role, injured himself preparing for it, relocated his family, reserved substantial portions of his professional schedule, and rejected other opportunities while Marvel repeatedly delayed production.
And after all of that, he still never played Blade in his own movie.
The closest audiences ever came to Ali’s version of the character was a brief voice cameo during the post-credits scene of 2021’s Eternals.
Seven Years of Blade Problems
Marvel originally unveiled Ali as Blade during its massive 2019 San Diego Comic-Con presentation, when Feige brought the actor onto the Hall H stage and Ali revealed a Blade hat.
The project subsequently became one of the most notorious development sagas in Marvel Studios history.
Bassam Tariq was originally hired to direct but departed in 2022. Yann Demange later took over before leaving the project in 2024.
The movie also cycled through multiple writers and incarnations as Marvel attempted to settle on a screenplay.
Blade: The Early Years Omnibus (2023), Marvel Comics
READ: Mood at CNN Described as “Like a Funeral” After Paramount Warner Bros. Lawsuit Settlement
Eventually, Marvel removed Blade from its release calendar entirely.
Feige acknowledged earlier this year that Marvel’s repeated failure to make the film weighed on him personally.
“I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala,” Feige said.
Ali has now made it clear that he believes Feige’s assessment is justified.
Ali Didn’t Want Marvel to Announce Blade So Early
Perhaps one of the more interesting revelations from Ali’s GQ interview is that he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about Marvel’s decision to announce Blade years before it was ready to shoot.
“I don’t believe in the announcements,” Ali said. His preference is essentially to make something first and tell audiences about it when there’s actually something to show them.
In hindsight, Marvel’s massive Hall H reveal couldn’t have aged much worse.
Mahershala Ali gives an interview – YouTube, ExtraTV
The announcement generated enormous attention in 2019, but the studio apparently didn’t have the screenplay, director, or production plan necessary to turn that announcement into a finished movie.
Ali became the public face of a Marvel project that spent years trapped in development. By 2026, he had enough.
When previously asked whether Blade could still happen, Ali gave a definitive response.
“Not with me,” he said. “If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question.”
Ali and Blade’s Original Director Made Something Else Instead
There is an ironic final chapter to the story. Ali eventually reunited with original Blade director Bassam Tariq for Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
Tariq wrote and directed the film, with Ali starring as Latif, a hitman whose life changes following the death of his wife.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JULY 25: Kevin Feige speaks during the ceremony honoring him with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on July 25, 2024 . (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)
Ali now says he is actually grateful Blade didn’t happen because making Marvel’s movie would have prevented him from working on Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
That means the star and original director of Marvel’s Blade ultimately managed to make a movie together.
It just wasn’t Blade.
How do you feel about Mahershala Ali and his comments on Kevin Feige and Marvel? Sound off and let us know!
