Ali, who won two Oscars for his performances in “Moonlight” and “The Green Book,” was announced as the new Blade in July 2019, when Marvel Studios unveiled the project at San Diego Comic-Con.

In a new profile with GQ, Ali said the fate of the film was a question for Feige, who previously described the failure to get the project off the ground as one of the biggest disappointments of his career.

“It’s a question for Kevin Feige. Like you said, he had a two-time Oscar-winning actor under contract and you got billions of dollars. That’s a question for him… I don’t know why it didn’t happen. To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I just know it was Kevin, he said it was the biggest failure of his career and I agree,” Ali said.

Ali was referring to comments made by Feige during his recent appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.

The Marvel Studios head said he was happy to bring on original “Blade” star Wesley Snipes in 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” but not getting a reboot with Ali made him feel like a “huge loser and failure.”

“I agree with them. I agree with them a hundred percent. A hundred percent. They should feel that way. I agree,” he said.

The project went through several directors and writers during its development. Bassam Tariq, who directed “Mogul Mowgli”, became the first director attached to the film in 2021, but he left the project in 2022. Yann Demange later took over as director, before exiting in 2024.

Ali said that the prolonged incident had a direct impact on his career and he spent a lot of time preparing for the role.

He said, “It was supposed to be six or seven. ‘Blade’ didn’t get made, which I thought definitely affected how things unfolded in your trajectory.”

The actor said he underwent a year of training for the film, including sword fighting and martial arts, while Marvel repeatedly postponed production.

“I trained so hard that my knees blew out. I was just waiting for them. I’m still training. I’m training. I’m learning swordsmanship. Name a martial art, I’m training in it. And I literally went, uprooted my family, moved to Atlanta. We’re waiting to get there. And they just keep pushing it back, keep pushing it back, keep pushing it back. It doesn’t happen And then it’s a strike,” Ali said.

Ali said he first met Marvel about the project in 2019 and was reluctant to make an announcement before the film was completed.

“I don’t believe in announcements. They just do the work and then it’s like you announce the job is done, right?” He said.

“So we did all that and greenlit a story and then we don’t have any deliverables. And unless they deliver, I can’t deliver, okay? So it’s not a secret, otherwise, we would have a film. And then I’m saying no to things at that time because they basically dictate my schedule,” Ali said.

The “Blade” reboot was intended to introduce Ali as Eric Brooks, the half-human, half-vampire superhero previously played by Snipes in a trilogy released between 1998 and 2004.

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