Director Bassam Tariq, who grew up in Houston and attended the University of Texas, and two-time Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali were supposed to make a Blade movie for Disney. Ali first approached Disney with the idea to revive the character first played on the big screen by Wesley Snipes in 2019. Ali’s casting and the film were revealed to much fanfare at Comic-Con in 2019, with its stars and directors set and a release date of Nov. 3, 2023, etched in stone.
Ali was supposed to be one of the leaders of the new wave of MCU characters. It was also a presumed career-altering jumpstart for a young, talented director like Tariq. Unfortunately, to the dismay of Marvel fans and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who admitted he felt like a “giant loser” that he fumbled Blade, the film has landed in development hell. Several writers were hired and fired over the years, and its release date has been pushed back several times, with directors changing along the way.
At the premiere for his 2025 film Jurassic World: Rebirth, Ali was asked about the still-in-the-air Marvel project and was still pretty positive about it, telling reporters, “Call Marvel I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.”
Fortunately, Marvel mismanaging Blade may have led to something original and even better in the film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. Ali and Tariq, who wrote the screenplay in addition to directing, put their unused creative chemistry to use on a Houston-sprawling action crime thriller that also stars John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli, Tramell Tillman, and Tiffany Boone.
The film follows a very religious hitman who faces the forces encircling him and his own beliefs as he sets out on a desperate trek across Houston to protect his children. Both Ali and Tariq are Muslim, and the film has deep Islamic inspiration. Its title refers to a famous Islamic saying about honoring one’s mother above all.
Houston also gets to add another film to the list of movies set in the Bayou City. Even though it was shot in Atlanta, setting it in Houston is still quite the creative choice. The fact that Ali will, in a way, be fighting his way through H-Town is not something I would have expected to see in his filmography.
The Toronto International Film Festival will host the movie’s international premiere. The screening schedule for Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother has not yet been decided, but the festival will begin on Sept. 10.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother opens in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 25, expands on Oct. 2, and goes wide on Oct. 9.