With two Academy Award wins under his belt, Mahershala Ali has more than proven his chops as one of the best actors in the business. As well as his penchant for delivering acclaimed performances in prestige dramas, he’s also no slouch when it comes to effects-driven genre fare.
His previous blockbusters include sci-fi actioner Predators, the dystopian Hunger Games series, the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel, but he’s set for his biggest and highest-profile foray into studio filmmaking to date when he headlines the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade reboot.
During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ali explained what makes his impending live-action debut as the Daywalker a completely different beast to anything he’s ever done before.
“It is weird, because the anticipation is so great. My excitement for any role is pretty equal, honestly, because I feel the responsibility is always the same. But, I’ve never walked into a role where the anticipation was so great. Where people were already so familiar with the character and have real opinions and points of view and all of that.”
If it wasn’t daunting enough to board the most successful film and television franchise in history, Ali also has to try and put his own stamp on a character that’s already been brought to iconic life once before by Sticky Fingaz on the small screen. No, wait, it was the Wesley Snipes trilogy. The 47 year-old is talented enough to put a fresh spin on Blade, and we can’t wait to see how it turns out whenever the vampiric comic book adaptation comes to theaters.
Published: Dec 4, 2021 04:59 am