After years in gestation, Marvel’s Blade reboot is officially dead – as confirmed by would-be star Mahershala Ali in a recent interview. It’s been rumoured for a while that Marvel’s Blade reboot, in gestation for at least seven years, is essentially dead. Fittingly, those stories have been confirmed by Blade himself – or at least ... Blade | Mahershala Ali confirms reboot death
After years in gestation, Marvel’s Blade reboot is officially dead – as confirmed by would-be star Mahershala Ali in a recent interview.
It’s been rumoured for a while that Marvel’s Blade reboot, in gestation for at least seven years, is essentially dead. Fittingly, those stories have been confirmed by Blade himself – or at least the Oscar-winning actor who was supposed to play the vampire-slaying anti-hero.
When GQ asked Ali about Blade’s status, he made it clear that he’s ready to move on from the whole project. “If they wanted to do it, they would have done it,” he said.
Instead, a whole other action project has emerged from Blade’s ashes. Its original director, Bassam Tariq, has since made Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a drama-thriller which stars Ali.
The pair talked to GQ about the forthcoming film, and how its flashes of sword-swinging action were in part inspired by Tariq seeing Ali’s fighting skills during Blade's pre-production.
Tariq abruptly left Blade’s production months before it was due to begin filming in 2022. Years later, the filmmaker doesn’t say specifically what led to him moving on from the film, though he may allude to it in the the interview:
“I’ve always tried to make choices that I felt like I could stand by, he said. “Sometimes you just have to take a job, and I’ve had those moments… And, to be honest with you, some of how quiet I’ve been is not really of my own choosing.”
Read more: Blade | A brief history of Marvel’s troubled failed reboot
Ali later talked more directly about Blade – and again, his attitude appears to be that Marvel could have made it, didn’t, and so now he’s moved on to other things. (Presumably, that also means he’s been released from any contract with the studio – he certainly talks about such matters in the past tense.)
“I’d love to do original work that resonates with people and impacts them in unique ways,” Ali said. “So, I’m good. Again, 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… But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question.”
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is due for a limited US release on the 25th September, followed by a wider rollout elsewhere this autumn.
