Entertainment

Mahershala Ali Shares a Silver Lining of Marvel’s Canceled ‘Blade’ Reboot

Mahershala Ali is grateful Marvel funded a year of action training for Blade, even after the reboot was scrapped before filming began.
By 
September 14, 2026
1 mins read
Mahershala Ali

After years of development delays, script rewrites, and director swaps, Marvel Studios’ long-troubled Blade reboot is officially in the rearview mirror for two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. But while comic book fans are mourning what could have been, Ali is looking on the bright side.

Speaking with Deadline during the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of his new action thriller, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Ali revealed the one big thing he’s actually grateful for from his time attached to the MCU project: Marvel essentially funded his physical training and preparation for his current movie.

When asked if he had undergone intensive physical conditioning to play the legendary vampire hunter, Ali confirmed he committed over a year of rigorous work to prepare for the role.

“Oh, absolutely. For a year. It was a little more than a year,” Ali shared. “I’m actually, I’m really grateful. Like, they helped pay for our movie, so thank you. Like, really, like, we couldn’t have afforded to, there’s no way we could have did this film, and I got to go train for a year,” Ali joked that Marvel’s investment in his physical regimen served as an unintentional contribution to Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an original action film directed by Bassam Tariq, who, ironically, was originally hired by Marvel to direct Blade before stepping down due to creative differences.

The extensive stunt and martial arts training Ali completed while waiting on Marvel went directly into shaping his performance as Latif, a devout Muslim contract killer defending his family. “So at this point, I’m so grateful that… they made a wonderful contribution to our film,” Ali added.

When pressed on whether there was any remaining chance he might step back into the leather coat for a future Marvel iteration, Ali shared, “I’m done. I’m doing this and anything else moving forward. So, like, yeah, I’m over that. So I’m done with that.”

Photo Credit: DepositPhotos.com