It’s become recent news that Mahershala Ali was allegedly on the edge of canceling after Marvel’s writing mishap.

The actor had a tough experience taking up his Marvel role. Producer Kelvin Feige announced in 2019 that the Oscar-winning actor would join the Marvel family playing Blade, the infamous vampire slayer, filling the shoes of Wesley Snipes as the main character.

Since the exciting announcement, things seem to have been going differently than expected. It was reported in 2020 that Marvel temporarily shut down production to hire a new director due to scheduling conflicts, and the problems only began to peak at that time.

The role earned him an Emmy nomination. Later in 2021, the actor starred in a Sci-Fi movie called Swan Song, alongside Ramy Youssef.

As things seemed to be falling in place to restart the production for the Blade reboot, several writers and directors were brought on but later let go from the project for various reasons. However, it was the most recent change in the script that caused Ali to reportedly want to take a seat from production.

A source familiar with the project eluded that the film was shaping into something much different from the original narrative, stating that Blade

“morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons,”

Which resulted in Ali being demoted from principal lead to fourth lead in the film.

Reports say Ali was not happy with the direction the project was headed in and reportedly bowed out. This was done before producer Kevin Feige, who worked closely with Marvel creator Stan Lee and understood the true vision for the remake, stepped in and made significant changes to keep the Moonlight star onboard.

Clique, what are your thoughts on this?