It Really Does Sound Like Whatever Mahershala Ali's Blade Movie Was Going to Be Is Dead

It seems as though the highly-anticipated Blade movie has finally been drained of all its blood. The once-upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film has gone through its fair share of roadblocks over the years, but it appears the project has officially stalled with little hope that it will ever pick up where it left off — which means no Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker himself, possibly the biggest blow of all MCU blows.

Rapper and artist Flying Lotus took to X / Twitter this week to discuss his role in the project, and he let slip that Blade is, in fact, no more. "I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new BLADE movie before it fell thru," the DJ, who recently directed Shudder’s new sci-fi horror ASH, explained. "Maybe it'll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho."

The day prior to Flying Lotus’ tweet, Sinners costume designer Ruth E. Carter confirmed during an appearance on The John Campea Show that she was set to design costumes for Blade prior to production falling apart — and worse still, the film was supposed to be set in the 1920s, which would have undoubtedly made for some seriously cool costume design, not to mention production design as well.

And because bad things tend to come in threes, actor Delroy Lindo — who was also attached to star in the film alongside Ali as Blade for a period of time — also opened up about the demise of the production just days before Carter’s reveal.

"When Marvel came to me, they seemed to be really interested in my input," he recently told Entertainment Weekly. "And in the various conversations I had with producers, the writer, the director at the time, it was all leading into being very inclusive. It was really exciting conceptually, but it was also exciting in terms of the character that was going to form. And then, for whatever reason, it just went off the rails."

Blade was first announced at San Diego Comic Con back in 2019 and if all had gone to plan, fans would be looking forward to immersing themselves in the film this coming November. The project has cycled through several directors at this point, but none, including Yann Demange and Bassam Tariq, have stuck with the film.

With everything this adaptation has been through, it’s almost hard to believe that it's been just six months since the movie was removed from Marvel’s release schedule back in October 2024 — and it has yet to confirm a new release date for it. That said, a month after the film was pulled from the calendar, MCU boss Kevin Feige made it known that the studio was still planning to make a Blade movie happen some way, somehow.

"We are committed to Blade. We love the character, we love Mahershala's take on him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still figuring out how it fits into our schedule, we let the audience know. You're all up to date on what's happening," he said during an interview with Omelete in November 2024. "But I can tell you that the character will indeed make it to the MCU."

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.