The Hadith and the Failed ‘Blade’ Reboot Behind Mahershala Ali’s ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’

‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother‘ sounds like it could be adapted from a novel, a memoir, or a cult comic. It is none of those. The film is an original action drama written and directed by Bassam Tariq and starring Mahershala Ali.

So where do the odd title and the hitman premise come from? The answer points to two very different places, an Islamic teaching about motherhood and a Marvel project that never happened. Here is what we know about the roots of ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’ as it heads into theaters.

The Islamic Hadith Behind the Title

The title comes from a well known hadith in which a man asks the Prophet Muhammad who is most deserving of his good companionship. The Prophet’s answer names the mother three times before naming the father.

The film does not bury this reference. Voice over narration recites the hadith at the start of the movie. The recitation comes from Adia, who plays Fatiha, the daughter of protagonist Latif, and Tariq used it in the opening scene to draw viewers into the rest of the action drama.

That choice sets the emotional terms of the story before a single blade is swung. According to Tariq, the reference places motherhood at the center of a narrative rooted in African American Muslim culture. Deadline described the title as gleaned from an Islamic saying about the care and love owed to mothers.

How the ‘Blade’ Reboot Led to This Film

The second half of the origin story is pure Hollywood. In 2021 Tariq was hired to direct a reboot of ‘Blade’ with Ali set to star as the half blood vampire hunter, but he exited a year later because of significant production delays. That project has never gotten off the ground.

Ali has been open about what happened next. He said in a GQ interview that the new film exists because ‘Blade’ fell apart, and that after more than a year of training for the vampire hunter, Tariq approached him and he was able to use those skills.

The training clearly did not go to waste. Ali recently thanked Marvel for financially covering his year long sword training, which he demonstrates in the new film. Critics have noticed too, with RogerEbert.com describing the result as a hybrid of religious commentary, samurai action and family drama. Rotten Tomatoes even framed its first reviews roundup around the idea that this is the ‘Blade’ movie audiences should have gotten.

The Story of Latif and His Family

Ali stars as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. He is a former Marine who only takes jobs he deems morally sound.

When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children. While searching for breast milk for his infant daughter alongside his teenage daughter and young son, Latif is pulled into a hit job that places him against influential faith leader Hwan Yoon, played by John Cho.

The supporting cast adds real weight. Cho plays an Army veteran turned evangelical pastor, while Giancarlo Esposito and Tramell Tillman appear in key supporting roles. Esposito plays Latif’s Imam, one of the few people who knows about his violent vocation and is unafraid to confront him about its moral cost.

Reviews and Release Details for the Hitman Thriller

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Tariq was also named the recipient of the Rising Talent Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards. The early word has been remarkably strong. Rotten Tomatoes shows a 100% approval rating based on 27 reviews, while Metacritic assigned a score of 84 based on 17 critics.

Not every critic is fully sold, and that makes the conversation more interesting. RogerEbert.com predicts that the ending will divide audiences because it refuses to deliver an easy, action based conclusion. The A.V. Club, meanwhile, argued that the film feels like a consolation prize born from the collapsed ‘Blade’ project.

Amazon MGM Studios and Orion Pictures are rolling it out in theaters beginning September 25 in New York and Los Angeles, with an expansion set for October. That wider release is scheduled for October 9. If the film really is a better story than the vampire hunter Marvel never delivered, would you have traded Ali’s Latif for his ‘Blade’ if you could only pick one?