ACADEMY Award winner Mahershala Ali says he still does not know why Marvel Studios' long-gestating Blade reboot never materialised despite spending a year training for the project and putting other opportunities on hold.Ali, who won two Oscars for his performances in Moonlight and The Green Book, was announced as the new Blade in July 2019, when Marvel Studios unveiled the project at San Diego Comic-Con. In a new profile with GQ, Ali said the fate of the film was a question for Feige, who had previously described the failure to get the project off the ground as one of the biggest disappointments of his career. "That's a Kevin Feige question. They had, as you said, a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and you got billions of dollars.That's a question for them... I don't know why it didn't.To this day, I don't know why it didn't happen.

 

I just know that it was -- Kevin, he said it was the biggest failure of his career and I agree," Ali said. Ali was referring to comments Feige made during his recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The Marvel Studios chief said he was pleased to bring original "Blade" star Wesley Snipes into 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine but felt like a "gigantic loser and failure" that the reboot with Ali had not materialised. "I agree with him. I agree with him one hundred percent. One hundred percent. He should feel that way. I agree," he said. The project went through several directors and writers during its development. Bassam Tariq, who directed Mogul Mowgli, became the first director attached to the film in 2021, but left the project in 2022. Yann Demange subsequently took over as director, before also exiting in 2024.