Mahershala Ali Calls Out Marvel for Not Making ‘Blade’: ‘You Had Me Under Contract. They Have Billions of Dollars. If They Wanted to Do It, We Would’ve Done It’

As most Marvel fans know by now, Mahershala Ali was announced to star in a “Blade” movie during a flashy, surprise Comic-Con appearance in 2019, but the movie didn’t get made. The two-time Oscar winner never appeared in live-action as the popular vampire-hunting anti-hero, despite Marvel Studios hiring director Bassam Tariq, and later Yann Demange, to helm the film.

Now after production stalled out, Ali and Tariq have teamed up in the wake of the failed Marvel movie to make this fall’s Amazon MGM action film, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.” If the actor and director hadn’t been brought together for “Blade,” their new movie wouldn’t have been made.

“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,” Ali told GQ. “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.”

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, who announced Ali’s casting as Blade at Comic-Con seven years ago, recently spoke openly about his personal disappointment at the movie not getting made.