Mahershala Ali has been set to be Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the bombshell announcement was made during 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con, but the road there has been a rocky one. Over four years later, the Oscar winner has yet to step on the set of one of Phase 6‘s upcoming Marvel movies, but he has just shared a hopeful update on playing the Daywalker.
As Ali, who took home the Academy Award for Moonlight, was promoting his latest film, Netflix’s Leave The World Behind, the actor was asked about the status of Blade, which is currently expected to be released a month shy of two years from now. Here’s what he said:
We're working on it. That's the best I could tell you. I'm really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we'll be back at it relatively soon.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mahershala Ali said that the team over at Marvel Studios is hard at work on Blade, and he’s personally very “encouraged” about where the movie is headed these days. That’s a solid update considering the movie has gone through the ringer since it was announced at SDCC 2019.
The movie was initially going to be released on November 3, 2023 with Mogul Mowgli director Bassam Tariq at the helm, and PEN15 and Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour behind the script. However, both have since dropped the project and a new team has been hired. One year ago, Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange was named Blade’s new director, and then Logan and Alien: Covenant’s Michael Green signed on to write the movie’s screenplay instead.
Blade started gaining momentum in early 2023, between the reported casting of horror star Mia Goth of X, Pearl and Infinity Pool, alongside Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre. However, their casting was followed by the WGA writers strike, which lasted a historical 148 days, along with the SAG-AFTRA strike, which lasted 118 days and led to another setback for Blade.
Now that both the filmmakers behind Blade and its actors are able to work again (as of November 8), Mahershala Ali has shared that the movie is back in business. Given the movie’s current release date, we imagine the cameras will need to begin rolling sometime during 2024, but it sounds like at the moment, the movie is back in the pre-production phase at least.
Following Deadpool 3 boasting the first R-rating for an MCU film, Demange has previously announced that Blade will be going for an R rating as well. It's exciting to hear that Mahershala Ali’s debut as the Marvel vampire hunter is still on and moving forward after it has experienced a few delays already. While we wait for Ali’s MCU role, you can catch the actor in Leave The World Behind, which will become available to Netflix subscribers this Friday, December 8.
