Bassam Tariq Reveals Mahershala Ali’s Scrapped Sword Training for ‘Blade’ Wasn’t Wasted After All

Marvel’s version of Blade has become something of a cautionary tale in modern superhero filmmaking, a project announced with massive fanfare that has spent years cycling through directors, writers, and release dates without ever reaching a set. For a character built around lethal precision with a blade, it’s a strangely fitting bit of irony that the film itself never got its footing.

Mahershala Ali has been attached to play the vampire hunter since his surprise reveal at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2019, and in that time, the actor has quietly put in real physical preparation for a role he still hasn’t gotten to play on screen. That work, it turns out, didn’t just vanish when the project stalled.

Bassam Tariq, who was originally set to direct ‘Blade’ before exiting the project in 2022, revealed that Ali had completed sword training for the role, and the results left an impression on him early on.

According to Tariq, the first time Ali stepped into sword practice for ‘Blade,’ what came back from the actor was described as incredible, a level of skill that suggested serious dedication had gone into preparing for the part.

That kind of physical groundwork typically gets showcased on screen once a production actually starts shooting. In this case, ‘Blade’ never got that far, with Tariq stepping away from the director’s chair in September 2022 after Marvel cited what the studio called continued shifts in its production schedule.

The film has continued to struggle in the years since. Reports have detailed a revolving door of directors including Yann Demange and Cary Fukunaga, along with a string of screenwriters that included Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Beau DeMayo and Eric Pearson, none of whom managed to get the project to a start date.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has since spoken candidly about the toll that failure has taken on him personally. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Feige admitted he feels “like a gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”

Rather than let that training go to waste, Ali and Tariq found another way to put it to use. The two reunited for ‘Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother,’ an action thriller from Amazon MGM Studios and Orion Pictures that finally puts a blade in Ali’s hands, just not the one Marvel originally promised.

In the film, Ali plays Latif, a devoutly religious hitman balancing faith and fatherhood while protecting his children after the death of his wife. The role gave Ali the chance to channel the physical training he had built up over more than a year of preparation for a character he may never actually get to play in the MCU.

Ali has since spoken about the experience with a mix of acceptance and creative closure, reflecting that while he didn’t feel great about how things ended with Marvel, being able to apply those skills elsewhere left him feeling creatively fulfilled in his own way. The sentiment lines up with Tariq’s account of just how far along Ali’s preparation had actually gotten before the project fell apart.

Whether ‘Blade’ ever makes it to theaters with Ali still attached remains an open question, especially with reports suggesting Marvel has explored other paths forward for the character. For now, at least, fans finally get to see some version of that hard-earned sword work pay off on screen, even if it isn’t wearing a Marvel logo.

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