Ali Backs Feige's Failure Admission Over Abandoned Blade

Mahershala Ali says he agrees "100%" with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's self-described "gigantic loser and failure" admission over the studio's abandoned Blade reboot, saying the Marvel chief should feel that way. Speaking with GQ's Zach Baron on the One More Question podcast, the two-time Oscar winner said he still does not know why the film never reached production. "That's a Kevin Feige question," Ali said, noting that Marvel had a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and billions of dollars. "To this day, I don't know why it didn't happen." Feige had addressed the film's collapse on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in July 2025, saying, "I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn't get off the ground with Mahershala." Marvel first announced the Blade reboot starring Ali at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. The project then cycled through directors Bassam Tariq, who exited in 2022, and Yann Demange, who departed in 2024, alongside multiple screenplay iterations and the 2023 WGA strike. Marvel removed Blade from its release calendar in 2024 after another round of delays.