Mahershala Ali Confirms He’s Done With Marvel’s ‘Blade’

Mahershala Ali is officially hanging up the sword. The two-time Oscar winner has confirmed he is “done” with Marvel’s long-gestating Blade reboot and will never play the Daywalker, closing the door on a project that spent seven years in development hell.

In a candid interview with GQ to promote his new film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Ali was asked directly if he was really done with the character. His answer was blunt: “I’m done. I’m doing this and anything moving forward. I’m over that. I’m done with that”. He elaborated on why the project never materialized: “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”.

Despite the disappointment, Ali revealed an unexpected upside. Marvel Studios helped fund the training he underwent for over a year to prepare for Blade, training he was able to repurpose for his new action film with director Bassam Tariq. Tariq was originally attached to direct Blade before departing the project in 2022. “I’m actually really grateful. They helped pay for our movie, so thank you. I got to go train for a year, so at this point, I’m so grateful that they made a wonderful contribution to our film”.

The actor also explained that the collapse of Blade is the very reason Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother exists. When the Marvel project fell apart, Tariq had the time, space, and focus to write the new film and approach Ali with it. “I couldn’t have done both, and the reason this even exists is because that project fell apart”. Ali was first announced as Blade at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, with the film originally scheduled for a 2023 release before repeated delays pushed it back to 2025, and ultimately, nowhere at all.