{"id":25213,"date":"2025-07-21T03:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/25213\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T03:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:39:10","slug":"kevin-feige-gives-update-on-mahershala-alis-blade-explains-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/25213\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Feige Gives Update on Mahershala Ali’s ‘Blade,’ Explains Delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDespite numerous false starts, Mahershala Ali<\/a>\u2019s debut as a vampire slayer in \u201cBlade<\/a>\u201d is still in the works, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige<\/a> confirmed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMahershala is still attached,\u201d Feige told a roomful of journalists gathered at Marvel Studios on Friday<\/a> about the project, which would see the two-time Oscar winner assume the role originated onscreen by Wesley Snipes, who played the part in the late \u201990s and 2000s, as well as in 2024\u2019s \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine.\u201d \u201cThe obstacle was, Ryan Coogler called and said, \u2018We\u2019d love some costumes for \u2018Sinners,\u2019\u201d he joked, referring to costumes created by Ruth E. Carter for an abandoned \u201cBlade\u201d film that Marvel commissioned, then sold back to Carter<\/a> for Coogler\u2019s vampire movie. \u201cAnd we said, \u2018Take \u2018em man, no problem\u2019 \u2014 he\u2019s a good friend \u2014 \u2018Take our costumes. We\u2019ll hold off on the movie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn all seriousness, Feige explained, the prolonged delays<\/a> on \u201cBlade\u201d were a symptom of Marvel\u2019s \u201cover-expansion\u201d \u2014 how the executive characterizes the studio\u2019s response to Disney\u2019s mandate to produce more content at the onset of the Disney+ streaming service. Feige hesitated to use a \u201cdramatic\u201d term like \u201cfallout\u201d to characterize the resulting situation, but \u201cfor the very first time ever, quantity trumped quality,\u201d he said, echoing similar comments made recently by Disney CEO Bob Iger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had spent 12 years working on the Infinity Saga, saying, \u2018That\u2019s never going to happen to us.\u2019\u201d Feige said. \u201cWe always had more characters that people were asking about than we could possibly make, because we weren\u2019t going to make a movie a month \u2014 that\u2019s crazy. Suddenly there\u2019s a mandate to make more, and we go, \u2018Well, we do have more\u2019 \u2026 But maybe that\u2019s what we fell into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, as Marvel began to reevaluate its development process, the \u201cBlade\u201d movie \u2014 which was announced in 2019 and originally intended to hit theaters in November 2023 \u2014 was one of the projects that stalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique,\u201d Feige explained. \u201cIt fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, \u2018Only accept insanely great.\u2019 And it wasn\u2019t \u2018insanely great\u2019 at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cWe didn\u2019t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production. We didn\u2019t feel confident that we could do that on \u2018Blade,\u2019 and we didn\u2019t want to do that to Mahershala and didn\u2019t want to do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBlade\u201d was originally set to begin shooting in 2022, but director Bassam Tariq (\u201cMogul Mowgli\u201d) exited the project in September, roughly two months before cameras were supposed to roll. Yann Demange (\u201cWhite Boy Rick\u201d) then signed on to direct, only to exit the film in June 2024. There is currently no director attached. Ali insists he\u2019s still game.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCall Marvel,\u201d Ali told Variety<\/a> last month at the New York premiere of his new film \u201cJurassic World Rebirth.\u201d When asked when \u201cBlade\u201d production could start, he replied: \u201cI\u2019m ready. Let them know I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral screenwriters have also been announced through the years, from \u201cWatchmen\u201d scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour to Michael Starrbury. Feige told Variety there have been \u201cthree or four\u201d iterations of the \u201cBlade\u201d story, two of which were period pieces. \u201cWe\u2019ve landed on modern day,\u201d Feige confirmed. \u201cWhich is why we could give those costumes back to Ruth, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of \u201cSinners,\u201d despite the internet\u2019s desire to see it, Feige said Coogler is not in the running to helm the picture (and seemed surprised that anyone was pushing for that to happen). The filmmaker has \u201cBlack Panther 3\u201d to focus on, which Feige confirmed is in progress, though no date has been revealed. \u201cWe know [when on the timeline it is], and if he\u2019s telling you he doesn\u2019t, <\/a>that\u2019s perfect,\u201d Feige said with a knowing smile.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, after all this, does Feige regret announcing the project during Marvel Studios\u2019 Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnly in hindsight, I do,\u201d Feige said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t. Because that\u2019s the way we\u2019d announced everything before, like that and had not not delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFeige then pointed to the \u201ctremendous amount of curveballs\u201d the studio faced between 2019 and today; there were the hurdles that affected the entire industry, like the COVID-19 pandemic and strike delays, as well as Marvel-specific tribulations, like \u201cfriends and stars dying; and storylines shifting people because people didn\u2019t respond to them the way we wanted to; and then, with Kang, actors [Jonathan Majors] falling out of our ability to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite numerous false starts, Mahershala Ali\u2019s debut as a vampire slayer in \u201cBlade\u201d is still in the works,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[22121,88,21843,21704,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-25213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blade","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kevin-feige","11":"tag-mahershala-ali","12":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}