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It’s been a hell of a long time since we’ve been able to return to the well-established and expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Luckily, we won’t have to wait too long for our fix with the upcoming premiere of WandaVision on Disney+ this month. The streaming show will be our first peek at the MCU’s Phase Four, which will make room for a slew of new hero introductions, while Phase Five is expected to bring in even more newcomers, including Mahershala Ali’s Blade.
In the summer of 2019 at San Diego Comic-Con, one of the biggest crowd-cheering moments of shock and surprise amongst the crowd (remember those?) came when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced that the two-time Academy Award winner would be playing the Daywalker on a to-be-determined date. Instagram digital artist ApexForm shared an exciting Mahershala Ali-portrayed Blade poster:
This piece of fan art depicting Mahershala Ali as Blade seems to take some inspiration from the poster for Black Widow, which is set to finally come out this summer. The artist captured his take on the character with red eyes, an armored vest, a sword in one hand and gun in the other. ApexForm said he created the edit in order to help generate hype for the project that is definitely still in the works, but isn’t talked about as much, probably because we have so little information about it. In my opinion, he needs the shades and jacket to complete the look, but it is a cool edit.
According to Kevin Feige, Mahershala Ali set up a meeting with Marvel since he’s a huge fan and pitched out the idea of him playing Blade in an MCU film. The Marvel Studios president had apparently already been thinking about how to adapt the character for the universe following Wesley Snipes’ iconic version. So the timing was perfect! Almost two years after the announcement was made, there are no writers or directors officially picked out, at least as far as the public knows.
The delay likely has something to do with the effect COVID-19 has had on Marvel’s grand plans that currently stretches into 2023. Black Widow will kick off Phase Four, which is set to include eight films and a bunch of TV shows on Disney+ – you can sign up for the streaming service using this link.
One of the few pieces about Blade that Mahershala Ali has shared was a piece of art with him as the Daywalker, but we cannot confirm whether it will actually match his character’s look. It has the actor donning some contemporary shades, a high cut and wearing the blade on his back. This new piece of fan art has us even more ready for the movie! We’re bloody excited for the Moonlight actor to play the vampire hunter whenever it does develop further. While we wait, check out the entire upcoming Marvel lineup.
