Speaking at TIFF, Mahershala Ali said he is finished with the Blade role he was announced for in 2019. He also thanked Marvel for funding more than a year of training that he ended up using in a film for a rival studio.
Seven years after Marvel announced him as Blade, Mahershala Ali was asked whether he is truly finished with the character.
“I’m done,” Ali told Deadline at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I’m doing this and anything moving forward. I’m over that. I’m done with that.”
The “this” is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an action thriller from Amazon MGM Studios that premiered at the festival.
Marvel paid for training he used somewhere else
The more interesting answer came when Ali was asked whether he had actually trained for Blade.
“Oh, absolutely. For a year, yeah. A little more than a year,” he said. “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.”
Ali is describing the physical preparation Marvel financed for a movie that was never made, which he then carried into an action-heavy film for a competing studio.
He framed it as gratitude rather than a complaint. Marvel effectively subsidized the conditioning for someone else’s picture, and the actor thanked them for it on camera.
The director is the one who was supposed to make Blade
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother was directed by Bassam Tariq, who was attached to direct the Blade reboot before departing the project.
So the actor and the director originally paired on Blade went and made their own movie together, at a different studio, using training Marvel paid for.
Blade never got past the announcement
The project’s timeline explains why this ended the way it did.
Ali was announced as the MCU’s Daywalker at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. The pandemic arrived the following year and pushed Marvel’s plans back.
What followed was a long churn of writers and directors. Aaron Pierre, now starring in HBO’s Lanterns, was among the actors linked to the production at various points.
The release date moved repeatedly:
November 3, 2023
September 6, 2024
February 14, 2025
November 7, 2025
All four passed without a film. Marvel eventually shelved the project, and Ali confirmed his exit earlier this year.
Blade did appear in the MCU, just not like this
The character has surfaced a few times, none of them the way anyone expected.
The closest Ali came was a voice cameo in the post-credits scene of Eternals.
Wesley Snipes, who originated the role across three films beginning in 1998, reprised Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine.
And Marvel Zombies featured a version called Blade Knight, whose design clearly drew on Ali’s appearance. He was voiced by Todd Williams.
So the role Ali was cast in seven years ago has been played on screen by two other performers, while he provided a few lines from off camera.
Marvel has not responded
Marvel Studios has not publicly addressed Ali’s comments, and the company has not announced whether it intends to develop Blade with another actor. Everything about the project’s collapse has come from the people who were working on it rather than from the studio.
Ali himself has been measured about it. His quotes read as someone closing a chapter rather than settling scores, and the gratitude appears to be genuine, if pointed.
What he is doing instead
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is Ali’s immediate focus, and his answer about being done was delivered in the context of promoting it.
He has two Academy Awards, for Moonlight and Green Book, and came to Marvel already having played Cottonmouth in Netflix’s Luke Cage.
A year of training, seven years of waiting, and a finished film at a different studio. Whatever else Marvel got out of the Blade reboot, Ali walked away with a physique and a thank-you note.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Deadline (September 13, 2026), the interview with Mahershala Ali at The Deadline Studio at TIFF 2026, including his comments on being done with Blade and Marvel funding his training
ComicBookMovie (September 13, 2026), the report that surfaced the interview, the Blade release date history, and the Eternals, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Marvel Zombies appearances
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