This article contains light Marvel Cinematic Universe spoilers.
Marvel is bringing Blade back to the big screen in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali taking over the role. We don’t yet have a release date for the MCU debut of the beloved character, but Blade did make his presence known with a brief vocal cameo appearance in Chloé Zhao’s recent Marvel movie, Eternals.
Wikipedia explains, “In a post-credits scene, Dane Whitman opens an old chest inherited from his ancestors that contains the legendary Ebony Blade when an unseen person[N 2] questions him whether he is ready for it.” That unseen character, of course, is none other than Blade!
That vocal cameo technically marked Mahershala Ali’s debut on screen as the character, and he reflected on the anxiety-inducing moment in a chat with Stephen Colbert this week.
Ali told the “Late Show” host, “The anticipation is so great… my excitement for any role is pretty equal, honestly, because I feel the responsibility is always the same. But I’ve never walked into a role where the anticipation of it was so great. Where people were already so familiar with the character. And have real opinions, and points of view, and all that. So it feels different. There’s clearly an added layer of pressure, which… I will embrace.”
“You just lose a lot of sleep over it,” Ali explained his preparation for bringing Blade to life for the first time in Eternals. “I was losing sleep over this line because, ideally, you want to be talking once you are filming… and 100% of the time, my first day on any set, on any job, I hate it. I hate how I sound. I don’t believe myself, ya know. So you’re trying to get comfortable in the character… so to have to talk before you’re even actually filming was challenging. But I’m grateful for it. Because it makes it feel real. It’s like okay, now we’re going.”
Ali adds, “Now I gotta get swole and jacked.”
Stacy Osei-Kuffour (“Watchmen”) was recently brought on board to write the script, and Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) will be sitting in the director’s chair for Marvel’s Blade reboot.