Six years after Marvel stunned fans by announcing Mahershala Ali as its new Blade, the reboot still has not made it to the big screen. Now, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is getting candid about the project’s rocky journey and admits he is just as disappointed as fans.
According to People, Feige addressed the long-delayed film during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where host Josh Horowitz jokingly asked how much “therapy” the Marvel boss had needed over Blade.
Rather than dodge the question, Feige leaned into the joke before offering one of his most honest comments yet about the troubled production.
“I’m feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine and like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala,” Feige admitted.
That confession is likely to hit Marvel fans hard, especially considering how much excitement surrounded Ali’s surprise appearance at San Diego Comic Con in 2019. Ali walked onstage with a Blade cap to officially announce he would inherit the iconic vampire hunter role from Wesley Snipes.
Unfortunately, the reboot has since become one of Marvel’s most infamous development headaches. The project cycled through multiple writers and directors, experienced repeated release date delays, and underwent several creative overhauls before Disney ultimately removed it from its theatrical calendar in late 2024.
Feige previously explained that Marvel refused to move forward unless the film met the studio’s increasingly high creative standards.
“We didn’t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique,” he said in 2025. “Only accept insanely great.”
Feige added that Marvel did not feel confident it could elevate the script during production, saying the studio “didn’t want to do that to Mahershala Ali and didn’t want to do that to us.”
Ali, however, has never publicly backed away from the role. During an interview with Variety in 2025, the two-time Academy Award winner shared that he is still waiting on the call.
“Call Marvel,” Ali said. “I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.”
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day arriving later this month and Avengers: Doomsday following later this year, Marvel has plenty on its plate. Still, Feige’s comments suggest Blade has not been forgotten.
Whether the reboot finally rises from the grave remains to be seen, but fans are still ready to see Mahershala Ali pick up the sword, and so is he.
Check out this clip from the interview below:
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