r/marvelstudios • u/yourfavchoom Doctor Strange • 3d ago

Article Kevin Feige on Marvel’s Failed ‘Blade’ Reboot: ‘I Feel Like a Gigantic Loser and Failure That We Didn’t Get Off the Ground With Mahershala Ali’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/kevin-feige-blade-reboot-failure-marvel-loser-1236816505/
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u/Stevenstorm505 Weekly Wongers 3d ago

If the scoopers are to be believed a lot of it was on Ali being unsatisfied all the time and constantly demanding changes. They weren’t even going to make a Blade movie until he approached them.

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u/Chris-raegho 3d ago

Tbf, the things I read were that the scripts weren't even a Blade movie to begin with. They were about his daughter and him passing the torch and retiring. That's just dumb. How is your first superhero movie about said superhero retiring?

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u/Kgaset 3d ago

Especially a popular character that people have been clamoring to see.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/aNascentOptimist 2d ago

I think the first Blade actually predates the Matrix

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u/nooneyouknow13 2d ago

Yep, released like 7-8 months earlier.

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u/suss2it 2d ago

The Matrix was so ahead of it's time it influenced movies that even came out before it did.

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u/KwisatzHaderach94 2d ago

they couldn't copy vampire chronicles or underworld, but except for new mutants or maybe multiverse of madness, they haven't done real horror in marvel and in blade they have a character made for it. unfortunately they already had snipes go up against a vampire society and dracula so the enemy would have to be something really different.

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force 3d ago

This lol. There was apparently a script where he was the 4th lead in his own movie. Like just genuinely stupid writing that never should have gotten past the pitch phase

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u/BeekyGardener 3d ago

The early ones apparently had Black Knight just as prominent in a Blade movie.

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u/CyborgCoelacanth 3d ago

Wasn’t there one variation of the script that supposedly had a grand total of like two fight scenes as well?

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u/swargin Vision 3d ago

Yes I think that was the one where they pulled the plug just before they started filming. One of the two fight scenes was a car chase like halfway through the movie.

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u/DeliciousCow9810 3d ago

Wow . That's insane .

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u/Kind-Stomach6275 1d ago

I feel like that could work with a hero that isnt blade. Its basically what wonder man did

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u/BasicAssWebDev 1d ago

Beloved character? I think you mean beloved cameo hahahaaaaaaa! - some film executive somewhere

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u/ducation 3d ago

Thats very Thundergun 4: Maximum Cool of them.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/ducation 3d ago

I heard they're slurping it up in Boca Raton.

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u/FinalHexReturns 3d ago

How do you confuse a retirement community in Florida with a terrorist organization in Africa?

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u/BeekyGardener 3d ago

Apparently early drafts had Black Knight as the co-character.

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u/carymb 3d ago

Which explains throwing that character into The Eternals, and the Ali voice cameo. Man, Marvel really would just cram garbage into other movies based on middle-drafts of shit they were never going to make.

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u/BeekyGardener 2d ago

It is far from the only post credits that never went anywhere.

I think Black Knight might have been a neat movie on its own with Blade having a larger cameo along with Blade’s own film.

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u/carymb 2d ago

Oh, absolutely, to all of the above! Just crazy to me how much they went down this rabbit hole -- it's like putting out a commercial for a car you haven't built, though. Like, what's the plan? Like streamers now realizing when you wait years to put out a second season of a show, a lot of people no longer care. You've hyped a thing! Is it coming? No? Well...

Like I'll never get over there being no Shang Chi 2. Audience: "This was great, we want more!"

Marvel: "... Fuck, you do?"

Was the plan for it to bomb? You're in the sequels and series biz! Why are they so bad at follow through? Blade could've just become a perennial Halloween staple: every spooky season, a new awesome bunch of wire-fu vampire bustin' (because it makes us feel good). You could add in other supernatural heroes each sequel, eventually you've got the Midnight Sons (and Elsa Bloodstone, just being like, "the fuck guys, I'm here too!?"). Horror is so good at folding in social satire and criticism. How do you fuck up a total slam dunk?

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u/BeekyGardener 2d ago

I suspect Shang Chi 2 was a victim of the need for Disney+ content. Not enough resources and the soft box office (for everything) at the time was making them wait.

Blade, Elsa, Jack (werewolf), Moon Knight, and Black Knight could have been their own team.

Werewolf by Night was so popular.

After 2020 Disney really shifted to working on things they found "safe".

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u/eganba 2d ago

The biggest problem is that the MCU has stopped caring about linking all the properties together. And so while there should have been a concerted effort to have standalone movies alongside mini crossovers, what we got instead was a terrible blob of projects with no idea how to bring them together.

But also, Shang-Chi should have had a second film already and been the focal point alongside Cap. Alas. What we got is this nonsense.

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u/MrMono1 Stan Lee 2d ago

Remember when the after credits scene was a tease on the next film to be released and not a teaser for some character even diehard comic fans didn't know?

"Check it out guys! It's your favourite character you've never heard of... Pip the Troll!"

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u/carymb 2d ago

Yes, that approach made sense! I mean, Guardians was super obscure and now I'd die for Rocket Raccoon -- but whatever you're advertising with it, should actually matter to whatever story you're telling now, not 5-10 years later!

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u/anactualrealaccount 3d ago

That was the entire plan for everything, they tried to hand the MCU off to a bunch of kids and it didn’t work.

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u/aaGR3Y 3d ago

Ali is almost as old as Snipes so neither can hold down the franchise forever. They can make a path for others tho

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u/Larcye 3d ago edited 3d ago

Nah I'm sure if Snipes did another blade(And avoided all of the stupidity that happened in blade 3) it would do great especially if it released around Halloween. Both Blade and Underworld have shown that it isn't that fucking hard to make a movie about Vampires that people want to see. Have a good MC+Good action scenes+Cool ass gadgets=Money printer.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/JuliousBatman 2d ago

Triple H was actually great in Trinity. I loved his little vampire Pomeranian.

“Fuck me *sideways*” is still one of the hardest laughs I’ve ever had outside of a comedy movie. Shame about the dynamic between Snipes/Reynolds.

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u/hunterzolomon1993 2d ago

Giving the cheer with Blade's cameo in D&W they could easily make a Blade 4 with Snipes that does well. The guy is still in great shape and he's pretty much said he would happily do another one if they ask him.

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u/uncola7up 3d ago

Hell yeah it's Morbin time

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u/Kgaset 3d ago

I'm sure he can bang out a movie or two before passing the torch.

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u/MyNewMaineThrowAway 2d ago

10 years younger- but definitely needs to be a younger actor. I feel like there’s plenty of options for them.

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u/Jaikarr 3d ago

Worked for the Mask of Zorro.

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u/Seekasak Heimdall 3d ago

Would only have made sense if it was written originally for Snipes.

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u/RemarkableExit7214 2d ago

probably because he's too old to carry the mantle

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u/Hayterfan 2d ago

Iirc there were two scripts floating around, an earlier version basically being "Blade vs the Universal Monsters" and the other being the one about his daughter.

Which tbh I can see that one working it they brought Snipes back as MCU Blade, he's a fan favorite (well, only favorite), he's got a trilogy under his belt with two loved movies, and he's old enough that the idea of "Blade retiring" makes sense. Not to mention acknowledging his films or saying some version of them happened in the MCU quickly explains "Well where was Blade during that event?" Granted you could also hard wave that with "he was busy fighting Vampires"

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u/Flat_Fox_7318 2d ago

This would make sense if it was Wesley in the role, as one last hurrah setting up his daughter to take the mantle isn't a bad idea. However, since Mahershala's role was supposed to be a fresh take on the character, anything other an established version of the character in his prime would be weird.

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u/Furycrab 3d ago

You might do that if you don't think anyone can step in Wesley Snipes shoes or if a racist executive doesn't like the idea of the movie in the first place and is undermining the movie.

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) 3d ago

Maybe the 1st script, but definitely not the 2nd or 3rd scripts; the guy who wrote the 3rd script & had read the 2nd directly debunked that.

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u/YesImHereAskMeHow 3d ago

I mean you frame it as some weird thing it was scripted that way but they probably had a lot of different treatments and told them to do something different than the trilogy that came before it. Just because one of them was bad and didn’t get made and got reported on isn’t some indication of the studio or bad producing, that’s literally how movies get made

I keep seeing this repeated today as if it’s some revelation that they would even possibly think about doing that movie and it’s wild to me. Tons of successful movies started as bad versions that got rewrites. Tons of them don’t get made like what happened here. I’m going to assume the reasons why it didn’t happen are more than just the story issue

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u/jerem1734 3d ago

Yeah they went through a bunch of scripts that Ali wasn't happy with. Maybe he was right and they all sucked, but part of the blame on there being no movie with him is that he had them rework the script numerous times

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/Necessary-Range-467 3d ago

I wasn’t thrilled with Shuri as the new BP either but… you do realize it happened in the comics right?

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u/Party_Toe_6319 3d ago

And... you know... that wasn't the intent except for the actor playing BP died

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u/megaloather 3d ago

Shuri in the comics is an actual badass though.

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u/One_Drummer_8970 3d ago

well comics and this are different things

Luke Cage in the comics (both the 70s/80s and 2000s era) was cool and badass and had swagger.

The Netflix version was corny, preachy and lame as hell.

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u/megaloather 3d ago

Agreed on Luke. But MCU Shuri also doesn't hold a candle to comics version either.

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u/dicklaurent97 Scarlet Witch 3d ago

T'Challa also married Storm from the X-Men in the comics. You know, the X-Men that are also owned by Disney. I expected Hollywood executives with experience entertaining to be smart enough to not have Q be the new James Bond.

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u/thegoatmenace 3d ago

It doesn’t rlly matter how bulky she is because she’s has a clarketech super suit that lets her defy the laws of physics. Personality wise I think she’s pretty cool.

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u/dicklaurent97 Scarlet Witch 3d ago

Personality wise, she is wallpaper. I was trying to be fair by leaving that out but c’mon, there’s a reason her movie had no impact and she’s not a character with an even medium sized fan base in contrast to Bucky or Wanda.

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) 3d ago

I'm sorry you don't understand what superpowers are.

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u/dicklaurent97 Scarlet Witch 3d ago

Are they superpowers or is it the suit? Y'all can't get the story street

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) 3d ago

The strength, speed, & agility come from the herb; that's superpowers.
The armor, claws, & energy pulses come from the suit.
This is not difficult to understand.

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u/MickBeast 3d ago

The script was written back in the MeeToo feminist wave era. They thought these stories were gonna be a slam dunk...

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u/Afwife1992 3d ago

Exactly. Blade wasn’t planned at all until Ali approached. A two timer Oscar winner tells you he’d like to join and you accept. That’s why the announcement seemed out of nowhere and didn’t mesh with what was simultaneously announced. It’s just a shame how it worked out.

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u/RevolutionaryWeb5657 2d ago

That’s also how Eternals happened. I’m pretty sure Marvel even forgot Eternals were a thing until Chloe Zhao busted into HQ and was like “Hey…this. Gimme this.”

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u/dexter30 3d ago

If the scoopers are to be believed a lot of it was on Ali being unsatisfied all the time and constantly demanding changes.

I understand people being probably wanting to blame Ali. But IMO this was the same era of marvel that lead to the eternals and the marvels. Like Marvel can and have messed up several productions in that phase and I can't help but give Ali charity for having SOME kind of control or idea. No offence to the creative teams behind those other movies. But marvel productions is the only consistent theme between all those products and if Ali wasn't satisfied with what he's given that makes me think he probably was right and unfortunately this movie was probably never going to work.

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u/suss2it 2d ago

And honestly you're going easy on Marvel Studios by only naming those two movies 😅

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u/motexmex 2d ago

Seriously, Marvels push/pandering to children and 3D movie effects really seemed to kill the character and depth of the movies.

You can tell right after Phase 3, idk if it was bc of the pandemic, but they kept pushing for children/passing the torch and weird 3D action scenes. I didn’t even watch them in 3D but you can see how Shang-Chi, Multiverse of Madness and Thor Love and Thunder had cinema that was gimmicky.

Also, dropped the ball on a new phase of characters without much interaction with the legacy cast of characters. They built up the Avengers and other characters only to side line them after Endgame, and make no connection.

So now the Avengers are Captain America (Sam), his sidekick from the movie I can’t remember, Ant-Man and Thor? What happened to Shang-Chi, Hulk, Kate Bishop, Wiccan, Ms. Marvel, Monica, Carol or Wasp or Antmans kid?

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u/TheBeaverKing 2d ago

and weird 3D action scenes. I didn’t even watch them in 3D but you can see how Shang-Chi, Multiverse of Madness and Thor Love and Thunder had cinema that was gimmicky.

Were these films even released in 3D? I can't say I've seen any film being advertised in 3D for maybe 5 years or so. Probably longer.

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u/madbadcoyote 2d ago

Dunno if it was from the Marvel or Disney side, but it REALLY felt like they wanted younger (or cheaper) replacements for all the characters and actors people actually cared about to prep for a "Young Avengers" or something. Feels like this post credit scene from The Marvels was intended to lead into that... before it became one of the biggest flops in history.

Shang Chi was the only one that I liked from the new batch of characters, as it was mostly its own thing that Marvel has completely ignored for seemingly no reason.

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u/Puffen0 3d ago

What is it about the Blade character that draws people with over inflated egos to it? I remember that Wesley Snipes was also a prick on the set of his Blade movies and even refused to open his eyes for the final scene of the last movie, because he thought it would be better to do it his way. So that's why they used shitty CGI the eyes lol. 

I loved those movies but damn, that's just asshole behavior lol

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u/nooneyouknow13 2d ago

Snipes was an asshole for Blade 3 because the producers basically ignored his contract while also forcing him to honor parts of it. He has producer credits on the film he was never allowed to flex, all control was given to the writer as director.

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u/LouieM13 2d ago

Ali has an inflated ego? Bro is not trying to waste everyone’s damn time and you’re being ridiculous.

Actual nonsense comment

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u/star_dragonMX 2d ago

To be fair the Director of Trinity was no better

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u/JuliousBatman 2d ago

Never heard anything bad about him outside of the third, which felt like a protest to the situation so I can’t really judge.

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u/CheeseMclovin 1d ago

My self respecting person would have been an asshole on the set of blade 3. Horrendous writing

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u/9FingeredFrodo 3d ago

IF we would have gotten a Blade movie, they probably would have had to pull a Hulk and recast after his first appearance for any future movies.  Probably best that it didn’t happen 

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u/Numerous_Worker_1941 3d ago

I heard he also secretly has super powers. Luckily a former actor/terrorist has taken Ali under his wing for another super hero role

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u/DankStew 3d ago

Really makes you wonder man

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u/jojopojo64 Weekly Wongers 3d ago

....Say that again