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If there is one profession that knows the value of keeping their mouths shut, it is lawyers. When your entire job is to protect your client’s interest, speaking as little as possible is a professional trademark – which is why the news that even Mahershala Ali’s lawyers are complaining about how long Marvel Studios’ Blade reboot has been in production is such a remarkable development.

It is a sign that tensions between the Oscar-winning actor and Marvel Studios are at an all-time high. Shelby Weiser, who represents multiple Hollywood stars, said to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month that the deal that brought Mahershala Ali onto the project “was in 2019, and they still haven’t shot it, which is pretty much the craziest thing in my professional experience.”

The frustration that fueled those comments likely hasn’t been lessened by the fact that Blade recently lost its second director in two years, with Yann Demange departing in June 2024. He took over from Bassam Tariq in 2022, who left when the movie was just months away from shooting. Add in the Hollywood strikes of 2023 and Marvel Studios’ new “less is more” philosophy, and it is looking increasingly likely that Blade is going to be nowhere near ready for its presumed November 2025 release date.

Does this mean that Mahershala Ali is likely to drop the project as well, leaving Blade without its star and potentially scraping the film entirely? It is difficult to speculate on that, but the fact that his attorney feels comfortable enough to comment publicly about the delays implies that Ali is understandably frustrated at having to wait so long to slay some vampires in the MCU. Ali is the reason Blade is even getting made in the first place, having called Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige after winning an Oscar for Green Book and outright saying that he wanted to play the character.

As passionate as Ali seems about the movie, it will become increasingly difficult to justify staying on without anything to show for it. He must have missed out on multiple other films because he has been expecting filming to start up at any moment. Now, with Marvel searching for a third director and giving the script yet another rewrite, who knows how frustrated the star must feel about the movie being dropped yet again?

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters