Kevin Feige Gets Brutally Honest About Marvel’s Failed Blade Reboot
Marvel's Kevin Feige gets brutally honest about Blade's future.
Blade is one of the characters who were fundamental to the MCU's success. That came in the form of Wesley Snipes' Blade movie trilogy being one of the superhero hits that paved the way for the creation of the Marvel shared universe. Now, the MCU has been trying to get a Blade movie off the ground since Mahershala Ali was announced to play the hero in 2019. However, the MCU's Blade movie has yet to show any sign that it could finally start production and get back to Marvel's release slate. Now, Feige has addressed that project's disappointing journey.
In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Marvel Studios' President, Feige, addressed the disappointment and upset surrounding the MCU's failed Blade reboot, saying, "I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala."
Feige also spoke fondly about how the MCU was able to bring back Snipes as his version of Blade in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, which allowed the franchise to at least use the vampire hunter on the big screen amid the confusion surrounding the MCU's Blade reboot.
Ali was announced as the MCU's Blade back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. Since then, the MCU solo movie has undergone several changes, with a rotating roster of directors, writers, actors, and different story ideas. At one point, Blade was set to be a period piece, which was then changed to take place in the present-day MCU. That said, the film never managed to move forward as hoped, and Blade was removed from Marvel's slate of releases on October 22, 2024. At the time, Blade was set to release on November 7, 2025, which has now come and gone.
Ali has yet to show up onscreen as Blade in the MCU movie timeline. That said, he has already made an offscreen cameo as the Daywalker. One of Eternals' post-credits scenes saw Game of Thrones star Kit Harington as Dane Whitman find the Ebony Blade. It is the weapon that the character wields in the comics as Marvel's Black Knight. Just when Dane was about to touch the sword, he was stopped by an ominous voice. That was Ali's Blade, who said, "Sure you're ready for that, Mr. Whitman?" Both characters have yet to formally meet, as they did not return in the years since 2021's Eternals.
Blade only appeared in a live-action MCU movie through Snipes' return in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, where he joked about how there would ever be one Blade, with Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool glaring at the camera, which was a clear joke about how the MCU Blade movie has had many issues. In animation, Marvel Studios used an alternate version of Blade, who served as Moon Knight, in the multiversal Marvel Zombies. The character was designed to look like Ali, but was not voiced by the actor, with Invincible star Todd Williams voicing Blade instead.
Based on Feige's words, he does not take Blade's delays slightly. It remains to be seen whether the movie will finally move forward after the Multiverse Saga concludes. There is a chance that Ali will formally debut as Blade in either Avengers: Doomsday or 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars. Given his voice cameo in Eternals, Blade could also return in a Midnight Sons crossover movie uniting the MCU's supernatural characters, rather than a Blade movie.