Mahershala Ali Says Marvel Basically Funded His New ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,’ Movie by Accident

Few Marvel projects have generated quite as much prolonged frustration as the studio’s stalled ‘Blade’ reboot, a film that’s been cycling through writers, directors, and false starts since Mahershala Ali was first announced in the role back at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. Besides a brief voice-only cameo in an ‘Eternals’ post-credits scene, Ali never actually got to bring the vampire hunter to life on screen.

Much of that frustration traces back to director Bassam Tariq, who was originally attached to helm ‘Blade’ alongside Ali before abruptly departing the project in September 2022, just months ahead of when production was supposed to begin. The two reunited anyway, this time on ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,’ an entirely original action drama following Latif, a devoutly religious hitman navigating single fatherhood after his wife’s death.

Speaking to Deadline as the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ali revealed something genuinely unexpected about how the project came together: Marvel, in a roundabout way, technically helped pay for it. Asked whether he’d actually trained to play the Daywalker, Ali confirmed he’d spent more than a full year preparing physically for the role before the project fell apart.

“There’s no way we could’ve done this film, and I got to go train for a year,” Ali told Deadline. “So at this point, I’m so grateful they made a wonderful contribution to our film.”

That gratitude comes with a genuinely funny twist, since the sword skills Ali spent over a year developing for a Marvel movie that never happened became the exact physical foundation Tariq needed to build ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s’ own combat sequences around. Rather than that training going to waste, it effectively became the backbone of an entirely different film’s action identity.

Mahershala Ali says Marvel Studios technically paid for ‘YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER’ to happen, since they funded his sword training. “There’s no way we could’ve done this film and I got to go train for a year. So at this point, I’m so grateful they made a wonderful contribution to our film.” (via: @DEADLINE)

— MCU Film News (@MCUFilmNews) September 14, 2026

Ali didn’t stop at simply thanking Marvel for the unintentional assist, either. He made clear during the same conversation that he’s fully finished with the character and the years of unanswered questions that came with it, stating plainly that he’s done with Blade and moving forward exclusively with projects like this one from here on out.

That closure follows Ali’s own comments to GQ earlier this year, where he similarly signaled he’d moved past the role, noting that if Marvel had genuinely wanted to make the film, it would have happened by now. His frustration echoes comments Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where Feige admitted feeling like a genuine failure for never getting Ali’s Blade project off the ground after all these years.

First trailer for ‘YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER’, starring Mahershala Ali, Tramell Tillman and Giancarlo Esposito.

The film follows a religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith & fatherhood.

In theaters on October 9. pic.twitter.com/Pl2P3HFkST

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 26, 2026

For Ali, though, ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’ seems to represent a far more satisfying creative outcome than the abandoned superhero film ever could have offered. The movie, which also stars John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli, Tramell Tillman, Tiffany Boone, and Giancarlo Esposito, follows Latif’s desperate journey across Houston to protect his children while confronting both external threats and his own unraveling faith.

With the film set to hit select theaters September 25 before expanding nationwide in October, Ali finally gets his action-movie moment, sword skills and all, just not in the Marvel property everyone originally expected. Sometimes the best use of years of specialized training comes from a completely unexpected direction.

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