Movies
‘Blade’ – Mahershala Ali Comments on His Unique Debut Appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
This article contains light Marvel Cinematic Universe spoilers.
Marvel is bringing Blade back to the big screen in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali taking over the role. We don’t yet have a release date for the MCU debut of the beloved character, but Blade did make his presence known with a brief vocal cameo appearance in Chloé Zhao’s recent Marvel movie, Eternals.
Wikipedia explains, “In a post-credits scene, Dane Whitman opens an old chest inherited from his ancestors that contains the legendary Ebony Blade when an unseen person[N 2] questions him whether he is ready for it.” That unseen character, of course, is none other than Blade!
That vocal cameo technically marked Mahershala Ali’s debut on screen as the character, and he reflected on the anxiety-inducing moment in a chat with Stephen Colbert this week.
Ali told the “Late Show” host, “The anticipation is so great… my excitement for any role is pretty equal, honestly, because I feel the responsibility is always the same. But I’ve never walked into a role where the anticipation of it was so great. Where people were already so familiar with the character. And have real opinions, and points of view, and all that. So it feels different. There’s clearly an added layer of pressure, which… I will embrace.”
“You just lose a lot of sleep over it,” Ali explained his preparation for bringing Blade to life for the first time in Eternals. “I was losing sleep over this line because, ideally, you want to be talking once you are filming… and 100% of the time, my first day on any set, on any job, I hate it. I hate how I sound. I don’t believe myself, ya know. So you’re trying to get comfortable in the character… so to have to talk before you’re even actually filming was challenging. But I’m grateful for it. Because it makes it feel real. It’s like okay, now we’re going.”
Ali adds, “Now I gotta get swole and jacked.”
Stacy Osei-Kuffour (“Watchmen”) was recently brought on board to write the script, and Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) will be sitting in the director’s chair for Marvel’s Blade reboot.
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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