Mahershala Ali says he still has no explanation for why Marvel’s long-gestating “Blade” reboot collapsed, and he isn’t shielding Kevin Feige from the fallout.
In an interview with GQ published Tuesday, Ali agreed without hesitation when asked about Feige’s own assessment that the failed project ranks as the worst setback of his tenure running Marvel Studios. “That’s a Kevin Feige question,” Ali said when pressed on why the film never reached production. “I don’t know why it did to this day. I don’t know why it didn’t happen.
I just know that it was Kevin, he said it was the biggest failure of his career and I agree. 100%. He should feel that way.” Ali also pointed to the resources Marvel had at its disposal, noting the studio had a two-time Oscar winner under contract and billions of dollars behind it, and said he still doesn’t understand why that combination never translated into a finished film.
Marvel announced the “Blade” reboot at Comic-Con in 2019, but the project spent years cycling through setbacks, including the exits of directors Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange and disruption from the 2023 writers strike. Marvel pulled the film from its release calendar in 2024.
Feige addressed the collapse over the summer on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, saying he felt “like a gigantic loser and failure” for not getting the project off the ground. He later told reporters at Marvel’s Burbank headquarters that the studio had a workable script but lacked confidence it could be strengthened during production, adding that he didn’t want to put Ali through that uncertainty.
Ali described real costs from the years he spent attached to the role. He said the commitment limited the other work he could take, and that a year of physical training for the part left him with a knee injury. He also said he relocated his family to Atlanta to be near production, only to watch the start date slip repeatedly. Despite the frustration, Ali said the experience ultimately pushed him to stop waiting on major studio projects and pursue his own material, including “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
