Kevin Feige Calls Himself a "Complete Failure" Over "Blade" Problems

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige admitted that he considers his inability to launch the production of “Blade” with Mahershala Ali a personal failure. The producer spoke about this in a new interview with Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Horowitz asked Feige how he feels about the situation where viewers want a new Blade movie, Mahershala Ali is ready for the role, but the project still hasn't moved forward:

Horowitz posted this snippet of the conversation on his Instagram* account. As of the publication of this news, no other details of the interview or the current status of the project have been revealed. However, Feige did not state that the film was canceled.

Marvel introduced Mahershala Ali as the new Blade at Comic-Con in San Diego in July 2019. Over the past seven years, the project has gone through several screenwriters and two directors — Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange. Feige previously said that the studio had prepared three or four versions of the script, including options with different historical eras. Ultimately, the creators settled on a modern setting but could not bring the story to the desired level. The producer emphasized that Marvel did not want to “just put Mahershala in a leather suit and send him to kill vampires.”

Filming was repeatedly postponed, and the premiere date was moved several times: originally, the film was supposed to be released in November 2023, then the release was moved to September 2024, February, and November 2025. As a result, Disney completely removed “Blade” from the premiere calendar.

According to rumors, the character may get an important role in “Midnight Sons” and appear in “Avengers: Secret Wars.” However, it is still unknown who Marvel plans to bring back — Blade played by Mahershala Ali or Wesley Snipes. The studio has not announced these plans or set a new release date for the solo film.