Blade is a project that's been shrouded in secrecy since it was first announced that Marvel Studios planned to reboot the character for the MCU back in 2019's SDCC, and we still don't have an official release date for the project. However, we did recently get a little tease of Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali's take on the Daywalker.
Spoilers follow.
We're sure many of you have seen Eternals at this stage, but if you haven't, best stop reading now.
Still here? So, in the movie's post-credits scene, Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) is about to take up the Ebony Blade when a voice stops him in his tracks. The person issuing the ominous warning to the future Black Knight is never shown, but it later came to light that it was actually Ali delivering his first line of dialogue as Blade.
Now, the actor has spoken about making his off-screen debut as the fan-favorite vampire hunter during an interview with Empire.
“It was really cool, getting to do that," Ali tells the mag. “It was scary. Because, you know, you're talking before you're filming it. I'm pretty particular about my choices, like most actors, and so having to make some choices – even with a line, vocally – this early on, it brought up some very real anxieties. And it made the job real. It's like, ‘Okay, this is happening now’, you know, and that's exciting.”
Ali didn't share any more info on the solo Blade movie, but did add that he's "excited to get going and do more." As for whether he's tried on that leather jacket/shades combo yet: “We're getting there,” he teases, “we're getting close.”
Based on what we saw in Eternals, Whitman will most likely appear in Blade, but there is a chance Ali will show up somewhere else as the Daywalker before his solo MCU outing. There are rumors that he might even factor into the upcoming Moon Knight Disney+ series, but that's yet to be confirmed.