Marvel Boss Kevin Feige Feels Like A 'Loser' For Not Making This Delayed Superhero Movie

Amazon MGM Studios

For a long, long time, Marvel Studios was set to reintroduce the character of Blade to the masses. Following Wesley Snipes' tenure as The Daywalker in three movies, Kevin Feige and co. tapped Mahershala Ali to take over the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What followed was a comically-long series of mishaps and mistakes that ultimately meant the MCU "Blade" never made it to the screen. Now, Feige has admitted to feeling like a "gigantic loser" for dropping the ball on this long-awaited, highly-anticipated film, and we can't say we blame him.

Speaking to Josh Horowitz of "Happy Sad Confused" (via Variety), Feige said he was feeling "like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn't get off the ground with Mahershala." That's pretty much all he had to say on the matter, beyond adding that he was "very excited" to have brought Snipes back for a cameo as Blade in 2024's "Deadpool and Wolverine." Beyond that, the Marvel Studios boss had little to say on the unrealized "Blade" film, but with his "gigantic loser" comment seemingly confirmed that the project is, in fact, dead.

Thus far there's been no official announcement on whether the "Blade" movie is still being developed or not, but Ali has remained attached and many fans were surely holding out hope that such a film would materialize at some point. At this point, however, with the general uncertainty Marvel Studios faces and the unbelievable amount of setbacks endured by the "Blade" film, it looks as though the project has effectively been scrapped.

Marvel Studios Animation

First announced at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, "Blade" was set to be a major release for Marvel Studios. With Oscar winner Mahershala Ali on board and darker subject matter from which to draw, "Blade" looked set to be a refreshing change of pace for the studio, which not long after would begin to encounter major problems. Alas, things very quickly started to go wrong.

Multiple writers worked on the project before "Blade" lost its director Bassam Tariq and replaced him with Yann Demange. Still, Marvel promised the film would arrive in 2024, but there was much more trouble to come. When the "Blade" movie lost its second director in 2024 it had become well and truly cursed. Ali himself almost left the project the year prior to Demange's departure and ultimately, a version of Blade made his MCU debut in the animated "Marvel Zombies" series.

In 2025, Feige spoke at a press event (via Variety) and confirmed that while Ali was still attached, Marvel's "over-expansion," i.e. the production of multiple Disney+ shows, was partly why the film remained in limbo. "We didn't want to simply just put a leather outfit on [Ali] and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique," he continued. "It fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, 'Only accept insanely great.' And it wasn't 'insanely great' at the time."

At the start of 2026, reports emerged that the film was dead altogether and that Marvel was working on a "Midnight Sons" movie featuring the character. Now, given Feige's most recent comments, it looks as though things have collapsed entirely, though we'll have to wait for a more concrete announcement to be 100% sure.