Mahershala Ali on keeping Marvel’s Blade secret, why he doesn’t envy Tom Cruise or Will Smith and why he still doesn’t think’s he’s made it despite his two Oscars

Even with two Oscars under his belt and a superhero film in the works, Mahershala Ali still believes he can’t carry a movie like stars Tom Cruise or Will Smith

The star of Swan Song on Apple TV+ is giving nothing away about his role as Blade in the highly anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe vampire hunter reboot

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Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris in a scene from Apple TV+ drama Swan Song. Ali is set to play the lead in Marvel’s next superhero movie Blade, but was giving nothing away about the role. Photo: TNS

Published: 5:15pm, 26 Dec 2021

Ever since 2019, when he was first announced as the new face of Blade during a star-studded Marvel Comic-Con panel, Mahershala Ali has been skilfully dodging questions about the upcoming vampire hunter reboot.

Asked what, if anything, he can say about the highly anticipated (and as yet unscheduled) film, Ali was giving nothing away recently.

“What’s so funny is you’ll write this 2,000-word article and then 40 other publications will spin off one quote,” he said during a press day for his latest release, the Apple TV+ drama Swan Song, now available for streaming. “And the thing I’m promoting gets buried and it’s like, ‘Mahershala Ali whispered Blade at night before he went to sleep’.

“And really, I don’t have anything to offer yet that is really, truly worth anyone’s time. And so what I really want to do is preserve the space to make the character great and then talk about that if and when I achieve that.”

Ali puts on a Blade baseball hat at Comic Con in San Diego in 2019. Photo: TNS

Ali made his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut as Blade in a voice-only cameo in the mid-credits scene of Eternals. After turns in the Netflix series Luke Cage (as charismatic villain Cottonmouth) and Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (as another villain, the Prowler), Blade will mark Ali’s third appearance in a Marvel project.

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