Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has said he feels like a “gigantic loser and failure” over the doomed Blade reboot that was meant to star Mahershala Ali.
Marvel announced it was making Blade back in 2019, and confirmed that Mahershala Ali would feature as a new version of its vampire hunter, previously played by Wesley Snipes. But, seven years later, the project appears to be dead in the water, despite enthusiasm from Ali and fans to see it eventually.
“We’ve landed on modern day,” Feige said in an interview last summer, acknowledging that Blade’s script had gone through “three or four” different incarnations, two of which were period pieces. “We didn’t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production,” Feige continued, discussing why the project had been pushed back. “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.”
In December, Mia Goth said she got a wig to wear for the 1920s Blade movie idea, before the setting was scrapped and the project was placed on hiatus.
“The furthest that it got with me was… I flew to Atlanta and did a chemistry test with Mahershala,” Goth said, speaking on the Josh Horowitz podcast. “I did a costume fitting and a wig fitting. I was very excited in the direction it was going and Mahershala had such an interesting take on it, he was great. And it just unravelled from there, unfortunately.”
Alongside Mia Goth’s wig, fans know that a full wardrobe of clothes was made for the film’s supporting artists, which were ultimately sold on. Bizarrely, these ended up being used in another period vampire movie, Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed Sinners.
Meanwhile, Wesley Snipes reprised his role for a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine. Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds has said he wants Snipes’ classic Marvel movie hero to get a send-off film akin to Hugh Jackman’s Logan.
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Now, with Avengers: Doomsday half a year away and Blade nowhere in sight, Feige has spoken about his feelings on the failed project.
“Shall we get into a therapy session?” he replied when asked about it by Josh Horowitz. “I’m feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine, and like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Merhashala.”
It’s a frank admission from Feige that Blade has been something of a disaster. In 2024, Snipes poked fun at the MIA film after news surfaced that director Yann Demange had reportedly exited the project. “Blade, lordylordylordy folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough,” Snipes said. “Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”
And in May last year, David S. Goyer, who wrote all three movies in the original Blade trilogy and even directed 2004’s Blade: Trinity, wondered what was taking so long.
“I would,” Goyer responded when asked if he’d write Marvel’s Blade reboot. “I’ve always loved the character and I love him. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines wondering, ‘What in the world is going on? Why is it taking so long?’ Because I’m a huge Marvel fan myself, and I’ve just been totally puzzled.”
There is similar uncertainty over the Marvel’s Blade video game, which is in development at Microsoft-owned studio, Arkane Lyon. Arkane Lyon is among a number of studios set to leave Microsoft ownership as part of sweeping layoffs across Xbox.
Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.