Perhaps the biggest announcement to come out of Marvel’s 2019 Comic-Con Panel (and the last for a while, thanks to COVID-19) was that two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will be playing Blade in the reboot of the franchise. And it’s happening because Ali basically called up Kevin Feige and told him he wanted the part and he got it. Apparently, after you’ve won two Oscars, you can throw your weight around a little and Ali did exactly that.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while yet before we can see the movie thanks to both the pandemic and Marvel’s very long and busy release schedule. But in the meantime, Ali took to Instagram to share a sketch of what he could look like as the character. Which you can see for yourself down below.
Pretty cool, right? You’ve got the signature Blade haircut, the shades, the cross around the neck and of course, the weapon of choice. To be honest, this is kind of what Ali has looked like for a couple of years now, so the image isn’t that striking. He basically looks like his character from Green Book just with a sword on his back.
While Ali will certainly be great in the part (did I mention his two Oscars?), he definitely has big shoes to fill in replacing Wesley Snipes. The original Blade came out in 1998 and one could argue that it was the first superhero movie to reinvigorate the genre coming off of the stank that was Batman & Robin the year before. Two sequels followed, but by the time Blade: Trinity released, the franchise had run its course. Under the guidance of Marvel, though, we should see a return to form for the character. Fingers crossed.