Mahershala Ali to Star in ‘Blade’ Reboot for Marvel
Mahershala Ali is joining the Marvel Studios fold as the star of a 'Blade' movie.
Mahershala Ali is joining the Marvel Studios fold as the star of aBlademovie.
The casting was announced Sunday during the studio’s Hall H presentation at Comic-Con, where Ali received massive applause as he took the stage and put on a Blade baseball cap.
Created by writer Marv Wolfman, Blade made his first appearance in the 1973 comic bookThe Tomb of Dracula #10 as a supporting character.He is known to be a vampire hunter — half-mortal, half-immortal — who tries to rid the world of vampires as a way of avenging his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him.
Wesley Snipesstarred as the vigilante in David S. Goyer’sBlade franchise, which began with the 1998 original and was followed by two sequels,Blade II andBlade: Trinity. The series grossed $204 million at the box office, and is considered to have served as the unofficial kickoff to the modern comic book movie culture.
Speaking toThe Hollywood Reporter after the presentation, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that Ali called the studio after winning the Oscar for his work onGreen Book. “When Mahershala calls, you answer,” Feige said. At the meeting, Ali came right out and said that he wanted to doBlade. That was that.
Ali is a two-time Oscar winner, having first snagged a statuette for his role in Barry Jenkins’Moonlight.Hewas most recently in theaters with Robert Rodriguez’Alita: Battle Angel. Curiously, he appeared on Marvel and Netflix’sLuke Cage as the villain Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes. Technically, the Netflix shows took place in the same universe as Marvel’s films, though they never truly felt like they connected.
Just announced in Hall H at#SDCC, Marvel Studios’ BLADE with Mahershala Ali.pic.twitter.com/JPcrSqSerW
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel)July 21, 2019
Patrick Shanley contributed to this report.
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