Mahershala Ali confirms Eternals cameo as Blade: ‘It was really cool, getting to do that’ (2024)

Marvel had announced Ali’s casting as half-human half-vampire superhero Blade at San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

While speaking with Empire, Ali confirmed the same. He said, “It was really cool, getting to do that. 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.”

He added that Marvel movies are the biggest franchise right now and “just to get my little introduction to that – starting with the Comic Con a couple years ago, and now the very early stages of stepping into the shoes of that character – it felt special and really cool”

“I’m excited to get going and do more,” said Ali. He will play the character in a solo movie somewhere down the line.

Blade, an African-American, was created by Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan and appeared first in The Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973. When Eric Brook’s mother was pregnant with him, she was attacked by a vampire called Deacon Frost. The mother was thought to have died, but she herself became a vampire.

Brooks becomes a vampire hunter in the vein of Van Helsing when he grows up, and sought revenge against Frost. The character has more been a horror hero than a pure superhero, in that he does not shoot lasers from his hands and does not have fancy gadgets.

Interestingly, the original Blade film, released in 1998, was the first successful Marvel comic-book movie. It starred Wesley Snipes in the lead role. The film, helmed by Stephen Norrington, spawned two sequels, the first directed by Guillermo del Toro and the second by David S Goyer.