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Mahershala Ali was cast as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Blade in 2019, but it seems that his first solo movie is destined to languish in development hell. Marvel pulled "Blade" from its originally planned 2025 release slot last year, leading to more speculation that the horror actioner will never happen. What's more, Ali is one of seven MCU actors who were replaced on "Marvel Zombies," with Todd Williams voicing the day-walking vampire instead, lending more weight to the fears that his time as Blade is already over. So, why wasn't Ali cast as the vampire in the animated series? The answer is simple — he wasn't available, even though the show's creators seemingly wanted him on board. In an interview with POC Culture, Marvel's Head of Streaming, Brad Winterbaum, revealed that he was more than keen for Ali to have been part of the series, but it just wasn't possible when production on "Marvel Zombies" began. As he put it: "I mean, yeah I think it was like a time — it was really a timing issue more than anything else." For now, Marvel fans will have to settle for Ali's sneaky voice cameo as Blade in "Eternals," which was released all the way back in 2021. The good news, though, is that the actor might still don the trench coat and fangs at a later date ... even if the delay has left some folks feeling skeptical. Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed that Mahershala Ali is still on board to play Blade as recently as 2025, so fans can rest assured knowing that he hasn't walked away from the project. Be that as it may, what's the deal with the hold up? As documented by Variety, Feige explained that "Blade" was announced at a time when Marvel Studios was focused on churning out more projects due to high demand, leading to a decline in quality across the board. As such, the studio will only make "Blade" when it has a story idea that lives up to everyone's lofty expectations. Per Feige: "We didn't want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique. It fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, 'Only accept insanely great.' And it wasn't 'insanely great' at the time." Feige summarized by saying that previous incarnations of the "Blade" script weren't great, and no one involved in the project wants to make a movie that settles for anything less. The delay is certainly frustrating, but no one can fault Feige and co. for wanting to make something truly fang-tastic, right? As of this writing, no prospective release dates for "Blade" have been announced, but the project is far from dead — it's simply ice-skating uphill. "Marvel Zombies" season 1 is currently streaming on Disney+.
