*Mahershala Ali is officially closing the coffin on his long-delayed “Blade” reboot, but the years he spent waiting on Marvel weren’t a total loss.
The two-time Oscar winner says more than a year of physical training paid for by Marvel Studios became crucial preparation for his new action thriller, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”
Speaking to Deadline at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ali explained that the Marvel-funded training allowed him to develop skills his new production couldn’t have afforded to finance for an entire year.
“I’m really grateful,” Ali said, according to Gizmodo. He joked that Marvel effectively “helped pay for” his new movie by covering that earlier preparation.
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From ‘Blade’ Training To A New Action Role
The connection is especially fitting because “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” reunites Ali with director Bassam Tariq, who was once attached to direct “Blade.”
In the new film, Ali plays Latif, a Muslim father and contract killer raising his children after his wife’s death. The character’s weapon of choice is a sword, making Ali’s previous action training particularly useful. The film premiered at TIFF and is scheduled to reach U.S. theaters Sept. 25.
Ali’s attitude toward “Blade,” however, has changed dramatically.
When asked whether he might still return to the Marvel project, his answer was definitive: “I’m done. I’m over that.”
That’s quite a shift from June 2025, when Ali publicly urged Marvel to move forward, saying, “Call Marvel. I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.”
Marvel’s Lost ‘Blade’ Finally Has A Silver Lining
As EURweb previously reported, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige acknowledged the studio’s failure to get Ali’s “Blade” off the ground after announcing him as the vampire hunter in 2019.
“I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala,” Feige said earlier this year.
The reboot endured multiple directors, writers, and release-date changes before disappearing from Disney’s release calendar. Tariq departed in 2022, and replacement director Yann Demange later exited as well.
Ali has apparently stopped waiting for Marvel to figure it out.
Instead, the training for the superhero movie that never happened followed him to a project that did — giving the “Blade” saga an unexpected payoff after seven years of frustration.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Kevin Feige Calls Mahershala Ali’s Shelved ‘Blade’ Reboot a ‘Gigantic Failure’
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