Mahershala Ali says he sustained knee injury training for 'Blade'

Mahershala Ali agrees with Kevin Feige’s 'failure' assessment over 'Blade' after years of delays and training

Mahershala Ali has agreed with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige’s assessment that the cancellation of Blade was a failure, after the actor spent a year preparing to play the Marvel character.

Ali was announced as the MCU’s Blade in 2019, but the reboot never entered production. Speaking to GQ, the two-time Oscar winner said he still does not know why the project failed to move forward.

“That’s a Kevin Feige question,” Ali said. “They had, as you said, a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and you got billions of dollars. That’s a question for them, like why it didn’t happen.”

“To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen,” he added.

Interviewer Zach Baron then referred to Feige’s previous comments about Blade, in which the Marvel boss said he felt like a “giant loser and failure” over being unable to get the film made with Ali.

“I agree with him,” Ali responded. “I agree with him 100%. 100%. He should feel that way.”

Ali also described the preparation he undertook for the role. He said he trained extensively for a year, including sword work and martial arts, while the film was repeatedly delayed.

“I spent a year training,” he said. “I trained so hard till I blew my knee out.”

The actor also said he “uprooted” his family and moved to Atlanta while preparing for production. However, filming continued to be postponed.

“We’re there waiting to go and they just keep pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing it, and it doesn’t happen,” Ali said.

Ali said the project also affected his career outside the MCU, explaining that Blade “definitely impacted how things unfold in your trajectory”.

“I was working on it,” he said. “I was doing what I needed to do to prepare myself. It just didn’t happen.”