Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has admitted he feels like a "gigantic loser and failure" over the studio's failure to bring its long-planned Blade reboot to the screen, seven years after it was first announced with Mahershala Ali in the title role. The candid remark, made in an interview with Josh Horowitz, underscores just how troubled the project has become, having cycled through multiple scripts, directors and settings without ever reaching production, despite continued enthusiasm from Ali and fans.

Feige explained that the script had gone through "three or four" incarnations, including two period-set versions, before eventually settling on a modern-day setting, but the studio never felt confident it could turn a good script into a great one during filming. Actress Mia Goth previously revealed she had done costume and wig fittings for a scrapped 1920s version before the project stalled, with unused costumes bizarrely resurfacing in Ryan Coogler's film Sinners. Original trilogy writer David S. Goyer and star Wesley Snipes, who cameoed in Deadpool & Wolverine, have both publicly questioned the delays, while a related Blade video game at Arkane Lyon also faces uncertainty amid Xbox studio layoffs.