Marvel’s Kevin Feige Says He Feels “Like A Gigantic Loser & Failure” Over Failed ‘Blade’ Reboot With Mahershala Ali

Kevin Feige has some feelings about the failed Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali that has yet to materialize.

While promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the Marvel Studios president revealed how he feels over the film not being made.

“I am feeling like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala,” Feige said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

Marvel first confirmed the Blade reboot with Ali back in 2019, but the project has since been met with multiple delays, including directors Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange’s exits from the film and the 2023 WGA strike.

In 2024, Marvel removed Blade from its 2025 release schedule, which was not a good sign for the future of the vampire slayer’s return to the big screen. Despite the film being removed from the schedule, Feige reiterated his commitment to making it happen.

“We love the character, we love Mahershala’s version of him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still trying to figure out how it fits into our schedule, we let the public know. You’re up to date on what’s going on. But I can tell you that the character will be coming to the MCU,” Feige said in a November 2024 interview.

A year ago, Feige said that there had been four versions of Blade in the works and the studio had “landed on [a] modern day” version, which was their focus.

“We didn’t want to put a leather outfit on [Ali] and have him start killing vampires,” Feige said of pausing development of Blade after Yann Demange and Bassam Tariq exited the project. “You can start and have a good script and make it a great script through production, but we didn’t feel confident we could do that on Blade. We didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”