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Blade, which is set to star two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali, was first announced by Marvel Studios in July 2019.
Since that movie was announced (if you count the three that also hit theaters in 2019), Marvel has released 13 movies — Deadpool & Wolverine will be #14 — while Blade hasn’t even filmed a single second of footage.
When the project was first announced, Mahershala Ali was 45 years old, which in and of itself is already on the border of being too old to play a superhero. He’s now 50 years old and he’s still yet to suit up as the character, meaning he could be, at least, 52-years-old by the time the Blade movie hits theaters (and that’s an optimistic estimate).
The point is: Marvel Studios’ development of Blade has been an absolute disaster, with Ali’s lawyer Shelby Weiser calling it the “craziest experience” of her professional career.
“That deal was in 2019, and they still haven’t shot it, which is pretty much the craziest thing in my professional experience,” Weiser told The Hollywood Reporter.
Thus far, Ali’s only involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a voice cameo at the end of the 2021 film Eternals, which wound up being one of the biggest misfires in the history of the franchise.
Next up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, which is the studio’s only film that will hit theaters in 2024.
While it’s been an up-and-down few years for Marvel, Deadpool & Wolverine looks set to return the franchise to the box office behemoth it used to be as the film is currently tracking to make $200-$250 million domestically during its opening weekend.