Mahershala Ali Officially Calls It Quits On MCU’s Blade

Mahershala Ali put the hammer down on his potential appearance as Blade in the MCU. Since it was announced seven years ago, Blade has been the MCU's biggest question mark, with no significant progress toward production or release in Marvel Studios' Multiverse Saga. Now, it seems as though the end of the line may be here for this version of Marvel's iconic vampire hunter.

Oscar winner Mahershala Ali shared that he will not play Blade for Marvel Studios in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When asked by GQ about whether the movie was still happening, he bluntly said, "Not with me" before expressing that if Marvel Studios wanted to make the movie, "we would've done it" by now:

"Not with me. The best way I can answer this question is, when I look at what is for me, is it was either this or that—and I'll take this. No offense to them. I've been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I've learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on."

This seems to mark the end of a tumultuous journey with this character, after Ali was announced to play Eric Brooks/Blade in the closing moments of Marvel Studios' Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. Since then, Marvel has faced countless issues with the movie, including multiple directors joining and leaving the project, as well as several versions of the story being developed and scrapped.

To date, Ali has only one credit in the MCU as Blade, a voiceover cameo during the post-credits scene of 2021's Eternals. It remains unknown whether he has any interest in working with Marvel Studios on another project at a later date.

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