From The Hollywood Reporter · Mariel Turner · · 1m 20s
Blade fell apart, so Ali built his own fight
A Marvel collapse left Mahershala Ali trained up with nowhere to punch, until the director he lost came back with a new film.
In brief
A Marvel collapse left Mahershala Ali trained up with nowhere to punch, until the director he lost came back with a new film. The Blade wreckage wasn't wasted: the relationship Ali built with Bassam Tariq turned into the movie that finally put his physicality on screen. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The Blade that never was
Mahershala Ali and director Bassam Tariq were set to make Blade, Marvel's vampire-hunting anti-hero film. It never got made.
A spectacular collapse
The project fell apart publicly and was pulled from Disney's line-up in 2024, after years of shuffled directors and rewrites.
“the project spectacularly fell apart”
Ali walks away
In July, Ali officially exited the film he had signed on to lead, closing the door on his Marvel run.
Trained with nowhere to go
He had prepared to fight on camera and was ready to do it. The collapse left that appetite unspent.
The director came back
The bond Ali formed with Tariq on Blade outlasted the film itself and became the foundation for what they made next.
Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother
Their new film gives Ali the room to show the physicality he has spent years perfecting, on his own terms instead of Marvel's.
The big picture
The Blade wreckage wasn't wasted: the relationship Ali built with Bassam Tariq turned into the movie that finally put his physicality on screen.
