It has been, without a doubt, the biggest failure in Marvel’s history: after five years preparing Blade, their film starring Mahershala Ali, they ultimately couldn’t finish it. Kevin Feige says he’s ashamed, and the actor stresses that he should be. Even so, he isn’t angry, because he got to train while getting paid for years and the experience led him to make Your mother your mother your mother, which he is indeed especially proud of. It’s something.
Bye Blade
The director of this new film, Bassam Tariq, was the same one they put in charge of Blade, and if Ali has “nice” words for Marvel, Tariq doesn’t hold back either. “It’s so funny, in the Marvel world… they tell you very lovingly, like, ‘Look, this is a Marvel movie directed by a person. They come onto shoots, do a whole lot of things and that’s fine, right?’”. Ali then cuts him off to say “Your name may not matter at all”.
Ouch. I get the impression that Ali and Tariq are going to keep criticizing Marvel for years, and rightly so… though he does acknowledge the talent of some of the filmmakers who’ve done well at Marvel, like Destin Daniel Cretton and Ryan Coogler, of whom he has said that “what he’s done is truly incredible in his universe”.
In fact, softening the blow of his movie not getting made, Tariq points out that Feige got him to “think big and be ambitious**. It’s what we did with what they gave us. We tried to do our best and respect the audience because I think that’s something Marvel thinks about a lot”. We may never get Blade, but at least there’s no resentment left. Well, more or less.
