Mahershala Ali’s Rep Calls Shooting Delays “Craziest Thing” in Their Career

Shelby Weiser is absolutely stunned by the Blade delays.

Blade star Mahershala Ali’s representation called the Marvel movie’s shooting delays the “craziest thing” she’s seen in her career. The Hollywood Reporter spoke to lawyer Shelby Weiser for a larger piece about representing massive stars like Ali. She says that she can’t believe that they haven’t begun filming Blade yet. “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 trade. Now, the wait has been a while. But, there have been multiple changes and course-corrections over at Marvel Studios and Disney in the years between now and then. (Not to mention a worldwide pandemic that shut the industry down for a year and led to a slowdown that the entire machine is still frankly reeling from.)

Still, in a week where Blade has had a second director step away from the project. (Yann Damage departed recently according to The Wrap‘s reporting.) There’s some script tweaks going on over at Marvel courtesy veteran script doctor Eric Pearson. Michael Starbury penned the previous attempts at Blade and the movie has yet to be moved from its 2025 release date. Ali remains attached to the project. However, the star is discussing Jurassic World 4 with Universal about a week ago as well. (Keep your eyes trained on San Diego Comic-Con as it’s believed there will be an update during the presentation.)

Will Blade Still Happen?

At the moment yes, but with Bob Iger talking about cancelling movies that Disney is not 100% confident in, it’s fair to wonder. Ali was a massive get for Marvel Studios and personally campaigned to be Blade. That was in a different world though, 2019 is so far in the rear-view that anything can and will happen. As for now though, fans should probably expect Blade to be pushed back to 2026 at the earliest and something like Avengers 5 to get moved up in the pecking order. (This, of course, creates a dilemma where the most vocal MCU fans get what they want in a way that they would not have requested it at all.)

Whenever Blade does emerge from his cocoon for the hunt, the feature will be rated-R. Recently, a lot of Marvel Studios efforts have shifted to the parts of their fanbase that have been clamoring for more adult-oriented content. A quick perusal of recent offerings and titles on the docket for 2025 show off that focus. X-Men 97, Echo, Deadpool & Wolverine and Daredevil: Born Again all share that focus. Meanwhile, the tone of Captain America: Brave New World seems a lot more grounded than the space-based adventures of Thor, The Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain Marvel. 

Late last year, Ali sounded encouraged by the direction of the project. But, that’s an eternity ago in the world of entertainment. “We’re working on it. That’s the best I could tell you,” the actor said in a new chat with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we’ll be back at it relatively soon.”

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