{"id":5277,"date":"2026-07-31T16:10:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5277"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:10:06","slug":"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-wouldve-done-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5277","title":{"rendered":"Mahershala Ali Calls Out Marvel for Not Making \u2018Blade\u2019: \u2018You Had Me Under Contract. They Have Billions of Dollars. If They Wanted to Do It, We Would\u2019ve Done It\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tAs most Marvel fans know by now, Mahershala Ali was announced to star in a \u201cBlade\u201d movie during a flashy, surprise Comic-Con appearance in 2019, but the movie didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Read more Olivia Wilde\u2019s \u2018The Invite\u2019 Nears $40 Million Globally, Becoming a Rare Hit Summer Comedy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tNow after production stalled out, Ali and Tariq have teamed up in the wake of the failed Marvel movie to make this fall\u2019s Amazon MGM action film, \u201cYour Mother Your Mother Your Mother.\u201d If the actor and director hadn\u2019t been brought together for \u201cBlade,\u201d their new movie wouldn\u2019t have been made.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I look at this and\u00a0\u2018Blade,\u2019 I couldn\u2019t 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,\u201d Ali told GQ. \u201cAnd I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for\u00a0\u2018Blade.\u2019 In that way, I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, who announced Ali\u2019s casting as Blade at Comic-Con seven years ago, recently spoke openly about his personal disappointment at the movie not getting made.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn\u2019t get off the ground with Mahershala,\u201d Feige said on the \u201cHappy Sad Confused\u201d podcast last week. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique. It fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, \u2018Only accept insanely great.\u2019 And it wasn\u2019t \u2018insanely great\u2019 at the time. We didn\u2019t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production. We didn\u2019t feel confident that we could do that on \u2018Blade,\u2019 and we didn\u2019t want to do that to Mahershala and didn\u2019t want to do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u2019 Sets Box Office Record With $72 Million in Previews, Beating \u2018Avengers: Endgame\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Ali is happy that he\u2019s starring in \u201cYour Mother Your Mother Your Mother\u201d instead of \u201cBlade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I look at what is for me, is it was either this or that \u2014 and I\u2019ll take this. No offense to them. I\u2019ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I\u2019ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would\u2019ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on,\u201d he said. \u201cAgain, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would\u2019ve done the movie. So we\u2019re not doing the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week at San Diego Comic-Con, Feige announced a \u201cGhost Rider\u201d movie starring Ryan Gosling and \u201cBlack Panther 3,\u201d starring David Jonsson as the new hero.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Is Luring Tourists to the Sicilian Island That Stands In for Ithaca \u2014 and Could Generate $500 Million in Revenue<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahershala Ali has called out Marvel for not making his ‘Blade’ movie: ‘You had me under contract, they have billions of dollars.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4171,4172],"class_list":["post-5277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-blade","tag-mahershala-ali-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMahershala Ali Calls Out Marvel for Not Making \u2018Blade\u2019: \u2018You Had Me Under Contract. They Have Billions of Dollars. 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