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*Kevin Feige is taking personal responsibility for Marvel’s inability to bring Mahershala Ali’s version of “Blade” to the screen.
“I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala,” the Marvel Studios president said on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.
Ali’s casting generated major excitement when Marvel revealed him as the new vampire hunter in 2019. Seven years later, however, the reboot has yet to begin filming and no longer holds a place on Disney’s release schedule.
The delay has not changed Ali’s interest. Speaking at the 2025 premiere of “Jurassic World Rebirth,” the two-time Oscar winner urged Marvel to move forward. “Call Marvel,” Ali said. “I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.”
Finding a version worthy of Ali has proven difficult. Bassam Tariq departed shortly before production was expected to begin in 2022. His replacement, Yann Demange, also left, while several writers attempted to reshape the screenplay.
One draft reportedly moved away from Blade as the central figure and placed greater emphasis on female characters. By late 2023, at least five writers had reportedly worked on the movie.
Feige has connected the project’s troubles to a period when Marvel expanded too aggressively across theaters and Disney+. He previously acknowledged that the studio reached a point where “quantity trumped quality,” forcing executives to reconsider projects that were not ready.
“We didn’t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires,” Feige said, Variety reports. “It had to be unique.”
Marvel ultimately determined that the screenplay had not reached the level needed to justify production.
“It wasn’t ‘insanely great’ at the time,” Feige explained. “We didn’t feel confident that we could do that on ‘Blade,’ and we didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”
The studio did return to the character in another form. Wesley Snipes reprised Blade in 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” a comeback Feige described as “very exciting.”
That appearance gave longtime fans another moment with Snipes, but it did not resolve the uncertainty surrounding Ali. Feige’s latest remarks show that the abandoned production remains a source of frustration, even as Marvel continues searching for an approach it believes can justify the lengthy wait.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Mahershala Ali Eager to Film Marvel’s ‘Blade’
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The post Kevin Feige Calls Mahershala Ali’s Shelved ‘Blade’ Reboot a ‘Gigantic Failure’ appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
