---
title: 'What Really Happened with Blade - Marvel''s Greatest Failure Explained'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=u49w1Vog1PE'
video_id: 'u49w1Vog1PE'
date: 2026-08-25
duration_sec: 746
channel: 'ScreenCrush'
---

# What Really Happened with Blade - Marvel's Greatest Failure Explained

> Source: [What Really Happened with Blade - Marvel's Greatest Failure Explained](https://youtube.com/watch?v=u49w1Vog1PE)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive timeline of the Marvel Studios' Blade movie, from its announcement in 2019 to its eventual cancellation in 2026, highlighting the numerous creative changes, delays, and controversies that plagued the project. It explores the reasons behind the failure, including script rewrites, director changes, and the departure of star Mahershala Ali, and discusses the broader implications for Marvel's approach to announcing projects.

### Key Points

- **Blade Announced at Comic-Con 2019** [00:13] — Blade was announced at Marvel's first Comic-Con after Avengers: Endgame, with two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali cast as the Daywalker.
- **Initial Creative Team** [01:10] — In February 2021, Stacy Osei-Kuffour was brought on as a writer, and in July 2021, Bassam Tariq was signed to direct.
- **First Director Departure** [01:37] — In 2022, Tariq left the project, officially due to production schedule shifts, but rumors suggested disagreements over the story direction.
- **Second Director and Writer** [02:07] — In November 2022, Yann Demange signed on to direct, with Michael Starrbury writing a new script from scratch.
- **Additional Writers and Casting** [02:20] — In April 2023, Nic Pizzolatto joined as a writer, and Mia Goth was cast as the villain Lilith.
- **Variety Article Reveals Troubles** [02:47] — In November 2023, a Variety article detailed MCU troubles, including claims that the script was 'led by women and filled with life lessons' and that Marvel and Ali were butting heads.
- **More Departures and Restarts** [03:15] — In June 2024, Yann Demange and Delroy Lindo left the project, and Eric Pearson was brought on as writer, restarting from scratch.
- **Removal from Release Calendar** [04:07] — In November 2024, Marvel removed Blade from its release calendar, though Feige reassured fans it was still in development.
- **Production Paused** [04:22] — In March 2025, reports indicated that Marvel indefinitely paused production on Blade, with plans to feature the character as a supporting role elsewhere.
- **Feige Confirms Development Issues** [05:02] — In July 2025, Feige confirmed that four different ideas were developed, two being period pieces, but they ultimately wanted a contemporary setting.
- **Sinners Connection** [06:07] — Background costumes from the period-piece version of Blade were used in the film Sinners, as confirmed by producer Sev Ohanian.
- **Blade Movie Dead, Character to Appear in Midnight Suns** [06:47] — In January 2026, reports surfaced that the Blade movie was dead, with the character to be introduced in a Midnight Suns project instead.
- **Mahershala Ali Confirms Departure** [07:26] — In July 2026, Ali confirmed he had moved on from Blade, stating that the project was 'not for me' and that he chose to focus on his film 'Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother'.
- **Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Comments** [08:43] — Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, whose Wonder Man project was also cancelled, commented on the 'optics' of Marvel cancelling projects led by black actors, though he didn't explicitly accuse Marvel of racism.
- **Lesson Learned** [10:30] — The video concludes that Marvel should not announce projects until the script is locked and filming is scheduled, to avoid public failures and bad optics.

### Conclusion

The Blade movie with Mahershala Ali is officially dead, with Ali confirming his departure. The character may still appear in the MCU, possibly in a Midnight Suns project, but the standalone film is a cautionary tale about announcing projects prematurely.

## Transcript

>> There's only ever going to be one blade. >> So, you're probably wondering how we got here. Well, watch this video to find out. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn, and we need to talk about the Blade debacle at Marvel
Studios. The inability to get this movie off the ground after announcing it to the world at Comic-Con in 2019 is arguably the most embarrassing failure of the multiverse saga. Hell, maybe of the entire MCU. Kevin Feige even
recently said as much here. >> I'm feeling uh like a gigantic uh loser the ground with Mhersa. >> So, we're going to recap from start to brutal finish the entire timeline of what happened with Marvel Studios Blade
and why we are likely to never see Mahhersa Ali dawn the black leather trench coat. Let's begin. So, Blade was announced in July of 2019 at Marvel's first Comic-Con after Avengers Endgame. Two-time Academy Award winner Marhersela
Ali was announced as the daywalker himself, Blade. >> Mahhersa, it it looks like it looks like you brought your own hat. Mhersa.
>> Now, in February of 2021, we learned that Stacy O Kufar, who had written on shows like Watchmen and the Bear, she had been brought on to write the Blade movie. And then in July of that same year, Basam Tariq, who is actually the
director of the upcoming Mahhersa Ali movie, Your Mother, your mother, your cubed. >> Oh, he was then signed on to direct. Now, come 2022, Tariq left the project, and Marvel claimed it was due to shifts
in their production schedule, but rumors suggested that it was actually over that the film's story would go. Now, Blade was supposed to begin shooting in November of 2022, but this loss of director delayed the production. Rumors
then swirled that Bo Deio, who did X-Men 97 season 1, he was supposedly now clear that that was never actually officially confirmed. That was just a rumor, maybe true, maybe not. Now, in November 2022, more than 3 years after
the movie was announced, Yandun, who directed the film White Boy Rick, he signed on to direct. and writer Michael Starbury was pinning a new script from scratch. Jump to April 2023 and we learned that Nick Piselato, who created
True Detective, he had joined on as a writer on the project, but it was unclear whether or not he was working with Starbury or starting over again. Around this same time, actress Mia Goth was even cast in the movie as the Marvel
villain Lilith. And rumor has it that she may actually still be attached to that role for Avengers: Secret Wars. Anyway, in November 2023, now more than 4 years after Feige brought Ali out on stage and announced the Blade movie to
the world, we got the infamous Variety article which detailed many MCU troubles, Blade included. Someone close to the script claimed, quote, "The story led by women and filled with life lessons, and Blade was relegated to the
that Marvel and Ali were butting heads Michael Green was starting the script over again. Michael Green, who is known for co-writing Logan. So, then June 2024
comes around and Yand has left the project. Delroy Lindo, who had also been cast in the film since 2021, he left as well. and Eric Pearson, a longtime Marvel Studios writer who has worked on Fantastic 4: First Steps, Thunderbolts,
Black Widow, Thor Ragnarok, he was signed on as the writer for the film, but he was restarting again from scratch. Then in October of 2024, there was a rumor that the Book of Clearance director James Samuel would now direct
the movie. At the same time, Teimo Chanto, the director of The Night Comes for Us All and who has most recently directed Nobody Too, he tweeted a cryptic gif in regards to Blade, leading fans to speculate that he was trying to
throw his hat in the ring. Then, in November of 2024, Marvel ultimately removed Blade from their release calendar. Kevin Feige reassured fans that it was still being worked on and that Ali's version of this character
would make it to the MCU. But then a pretty credible scooper, Jeff Snyder, he reported in March of 2025 that Carrie Johi Fukunaga, who also worked on True Detective and directed No Time To Die, he had been poised to direct Blade by
late 2024, but negotiations fell through because Marvel wanted a quote studio friendly director. Then Rodrigo Perez from the playlist, he reported that Marvel indefinitely paused production on Blade, saying the movie was essentially
nixed. He claimed that Marvel was now looking to feature Blade as a supporting character in another movie instead. Now, in June, Adam B. Vary reported from Variety that the movie was still in production and Ali said that he was
quote unsure of where Marvel is with the project. And then in July of 2025, Feige reassured fans once again that Ali was still attached and the movie was still being developed. He spoke on the development issues, confirming that four
different ideas were developed with two of those being period pieces. But Feige contemporary setting for the movie instead. Feige said they quote didn't want to just put Ali in a leather outfit and have him start killing vampires.
Yeah, that'd be crazy. So then Daniel RPK shared that Blade would now begin RPK shared that Blade would now begin filming in 2026 for a 2027 release. We of Blade did in fact appear in the animated Marvel zombie show, but he was
voiced by Todd Williams, not Mhersela Ali. Marvel's reasoning was that Ali couldn't voice the character due to scheduling conflicts, right? Brad Winderbomb of Marvel television then said that they planned for Zombies to
release after the Blade film so it would kind of line up. But since they were being worked on at the same time, the team decided to create Blade Knight, a crossover between Blade and Moonnight to avoid crossing over with the film. It
was also here on Screen Crush where Ryan interviewed Sinners and Ironheart producer Sev Ohanian who confirmed that background costumes used on the film Sinners were originally created for the period piece version of Blade.
>> At one point that film was going to deal with the past and Marvel was generous basically purchase it at price and a lot of the background actors in our movie are wearing those clothes. Now, following the success of Sinners, many
fans, including myself, said it. Let Ryan Cougler do Blade. You know, it'll be great. But Feige shut down that idea, stating that Cougler was busy doing Black Panther 3. Now, in October of 2025, Mia Goth, she reaffirmed that she
was still attached to the film, stating that the production delays were for the best so Marvel could do it right. Goth said that they had reached the costume fitting and chemistry testing stages. And then January of 2026 came and Jeff
Snyder reports the Blade movie is dead, but that Blade will now instead be introduced in Midnight Suns, which could very well be a movie in the works right now, especially with us knowing that Marvel is doing a Ghost Rider movie. And
then in July of 2026, during press for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Josh Haritz from the Happy Sad Confused podcast asked Kevin Feige his thoughts on Blade. And Feige said, >> "I'm feeling uh very excited that uh
that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool and Wolverine and like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn't uh uh get off the ground with >> Shortly thereafter, Mhersa Ali was asked about Blade while promoting his new
Mother. And there he fully confirmed that he has moved on from the Blade project, saying that the best way I can answer this question is when I look at what is for me is that it was either this or that. And I'll take this. No
offense to them. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they So, I have to move on and I have moved on. He had me under contract. They have billions of dollars. If they wanted to do the movie, we would have done the
then continued to reference your mother, your mother, your mother, saying, quote, "When I look at this and Blade, I couldn't have done both. And the reason this movie even exists is because that project fell apart and Basam had the
time, space, energy, and focus to go and write this and then reapproach me. And I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for Blade. In that way, I feel creatively redeemed on some level just
in my own journey between me, myself, and I. But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn't want to do it, so they should answer that question. So that quote was a little long and wordy
correctly. Essentially he is saying that he has moved on from it and the fact that he is now getting to do your mother your mother your mother is because that blade project fell through and that's it. That's the end of the story as of
right now that's the end of Blade at least this version with Mahersela Ali. Now, in a recent interview with another very talented black actor who had his Marvel project recently cancelled as well, Wonderman himself, Yaya Abdul
Matin II, he said, quote, I think the optics are obvious. If I'm a big business, if I'm Disney, if I'm Marvel, I don't want to be attached to these optics. It's true. It's not a good look. I mean, am I sitting here saying, "Oh,
Marvel canled these projects because they're black actor projects." No, I I'm not saying that. But to Yaya's point, it is a bad look. It is bad optics, but really beyond the racial aspect, which is very bad, it's bad optics all around
that Marvel willy-nilly announces [ __ ] to the public only for it to fall flat on its face. This was especially a problem a few years back when they announced all those shows and movies like another black actor project, Don
Cheetel's Armor Wars, which is also seemingly no longer happening. Wars? Uh, the next Marvel >> What's Armor Wars? And the situation there with all of those announcements was that Feige was given a mandate by
then Disney CEO Bob Cheek to put out as much content as possible. So Marvel, they announced a lot of projects that weren't really ready to be announced. And I think that's what happened with Blade and Wonderman. Wonderman, it was
supposed to be a limited series. Then when it was so wellreceived, Marvel was we're doing another one now." And then not 2 seconds later, they canceled it. announced at the very end of an already impressive panel. And I get that Feige
felt certain that it would happen, so he felt comfortable announcing it and more stuff. But I hope the lesson they learn here is do not announce things to the public until the script is locked and the first day of filming is on the
calendar. He's talking about you. that can help you avoid cluster [ __ ] like this that are one bad optics in regards to what Yaya was discussing, but also just a bad look in general, making it look like they don't know what the hell
they're doing. Kind of like Lucasfilm. And I know that has to piss Feige off because for so long Marvel Studios was looked at as this very welloiled machine happen. Now, as for what's next for Blade, when will we see Blade? Will we
ever get the Blade movie? Well, Blade is a really great character and I hope to God that they still have plans to introduce his character soon. And I want that Midnight Suns movie, man. This corner of the MCU, it would be really
fun to explore, especially if they do it like the Marvel Nights line of comics, which was targeted at a mature audience at adults. These movies could be rated R and it could be a really great cinematic universe of sorts within the greater
Marvel Cinematic Universe. And hey, maybe before you do cast a new actor for again for Secret Wars. That'd be fun. All right, so that's the story of Blade and how it went from being this really anticipated Marvel movie to essentially
now not being made, at least the Mahersa Ali version. Let me know your thoughts When and where do you think we'll ever see Blade again? Do you want to see certain actors that you would like to see play the role? Could we maybe see
Ryan Cougler actually do it after he does Black Panther 3? Is there any possibility that Mahhersa Ali sometime down the line could return? Let me know comments below. And if you're new here, be sure to subscribe, hit the bell so
new video. And you can also feel free to check me out on my personal channel link in the description below for Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn. Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn. [music]