UPDATE: Ali went further in a new interview with Revolt, saying he agrees Kevin Feige should feel like a failure over Blade and revealing he trained until he blew his knee out. Read Ali’s full comments here.
Mahershala Ali is done with Blade, and he’s moving on.
Asked at the Toronto International Film Festival whether Blade is really finished, Ali didn’t leave any room.
“I’m done. I’m doing this and anything else moving forward,” Ali told Deadline. “So yeah, I’m over that. I’m done with that.”
The interview came as Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother premiered Saturday night at TIFF — and Ali had a message for Marvel about that movie.
Asked whether he had trained to play the Daywalker, Ali said: “Oh, absolutely. For a year. It was a little more than a year.”
“I’m actually really grateful. They helped pay for our movie, so thank you,” Ali continued. “Really — we couldn’t have afforded to, there’s no way we could have done this film, and 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,” he added.
The Movie Marvel Paid For
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is written and directed by Bassam Tariq — the same filmmaker Marvel hired to direct Blade in 2021 before he exited the project in 2022.
So Blade’s original star and Blade’s original director went off and made their own R-rated action movie, with Ali as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman protecting his kids across Houston. John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Tiffany Boone, and Tramell Tillman co-star.
The fight training Ali did for Marvel went into this film instead. By his own account, so did the Blade paycheck.
Amazon MGM opens the film in theaters September 25, going wide in October.
Seven Years, Four Release Dates, Zero Frames
Marvel announced Ali as Blade in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019.
The film burned through two directors, at least five writers, and four release dates: November 3, 2023, September 6, 2024, February 14, 2025, and November 7, 2025. Mia Goth, Delroy Lindo, and Aaron Pierre were all attached at various points.
In October 2024, Marvel pulled Blade off the schedule entirely and gave its date to Predator: Badlands. Not a single frame was ever shot.
Ali officially walked in July, telling GQ: “You had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie.”
Kevin Feige, for his part, said he feels like a “gigantic loser and failure” over Blade never getting off the ground, while insisting the character is still coming to the MCU.
Ali just made clear it will be without him.
