Movies

'If they wanted to do it, we would've done it,' the actor said of Marvel's troubled 'Blade' reboot.

Marvel’s long-gestating Blade reboot isn’t happening – at least not with Mahershala Ali. 

In 2019, Marvel announced that the Oscar winner would portray the iconic vampire hunter in a new MCU film. But seven years later, the movie has yet to materialize, and Ali is done waiting around to start filming. 

In a new interview with GQ, the actor addressed whether a new Blade film would ever become a reality. 

“Not with me,” Ali replied. 

“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,” he continued, referring to his upcoming movie Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother with director Bassam Tariq, who was originally supposed to direct Blade. “No offense to them.”

Over his nearly three decades as an actor, Ali said that he’d learned “what is for you is for you and what is not is not” and he accepted that he just wasn’t meant to be part of the MCU. 

“If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it,” he added bluntly. “So I have to move on, and I have moved on.”

Ali didn’t explain exactly why the much-hyped Blade reboot failed to get off the ground. But he suggested that Marvel just wasn’t motivated enough to make it happen. 

“Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie,” he said. “So we’re not doing the movie …  Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question.”

With Ali having publicly cut ties with Blade, that means his only appearance as the character will be a voice-only cameo at the end of 2021’s The Eternals.  

However, Blade/Eric Brooks hasn’t been forgotten entirely by Marvel. Wesley Snipes – who played the character in three Blade movies from 1998 to 2004 — made a cameo in 2024’s Deadpool and Wolverine. 

Snipes said he was shocked when he got a message from Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds asking him to reprise his role as the daywalker. He “did not think it was possible,” he told Entertainment Weekly, in part because of the still-in-development reboot. 

“I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think that Marvel was into it, Disney was into it — also because they had Mahershala cast for the next upcoming version of it,” he said. 

In the movie, Snipes’ Blade exists in an alternate timeline. At one point, he delivers the line: “There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever gonna be one Blade.” Many viewers took that as a reference to the troubled Blade reboot.  

Snipes told EW that he had no issues with Ali stepping into the Blade role and that any issues with the movie’s production shouldn’t be laid at the Moonlight star’s feet. 

“I shouted him out, told him he’s got all my blessings and support,” Snipes said. “I even referenced the fact that some of the challenges they’re facing now with the project, it shouldn’t be accredited to him.” 

“It’s not the actor’s fault,” he added. “There’s a lot more that goes on with pulling this Blade stuff off.” 

For more​​ news and exclusive interviews, follow Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s Instagram.