Blade: Delroy Lindo joins Mahershala Ali in Marvel reboot

It’s been a few years since it was first announced that Mahershala Ali would be playing Blade in Marvel’s upcoming reboot and the first new actor to board the project since Ali has now been revealed. THR has reported that the great Delroy Lindo is in final negotiations to join the cast of the Blade reboot.

It’s not known just who Delroy Lindo will be playing in the Blade reboot but he will make a damn fine addition to the cast. The Blade movie will be directed by Bassam Tariq from a script by Stacy Osei-Kuffour and it’s expected that production will kick off in late summer 2022. Mahershala Ali has said that he’s in the “very early stages” of stepping into Blade’s shoes and is “excited to get going and do more.” There will be some MCU SPOILERS below, so click away now if you’re not up to date.

If you’ve seen Eternals, you’ll know that Mahershala Ali has already made his MCU debut as Blade. The final post-credit scene of the film found Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) opening an ancient family chest that contained the Ebony Blade. As he prepared himself to touch it, he was interrupted by the voice of someone from off-camera who said, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?” That person was Blade, and Mahershala Ali was excited to make his debut.

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.

Delroy Lindo can currently be seen starring alongside Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, and Regina King in Netflix’s The Harder They Fall. Lindo played Bass Reeves, a real-life figure who was the first black deputy U.S. Marshall west of the Mississippi. You can check out a review of The Harder They Fall from our own Matt Rooney right here.