Marvel's Blade star Mahershala Ali joins new thriller series

Marvel’s Blade star Mahershala Ali joins new thriller series

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Marvel’s Blade and Luke Cage star Mahershala Ali has signed up to star in new thriller series The Plot.

Variety reports that the limited series, which Ali will also executive produce, will see the Oscar-winning actor play a struggling author named Jacob, who has not written a successful novel for a long time and who is primed to seize any opportunity that might come along to help revive his career.

When a once in a lifetime opportunity presents itself, Jacob decides to commit an act of literary theft that goes on to change his life as he finds success once again. But it soon transpires that somebody knows his secret, and he is forced to try to protect himself and the life he’s built from their threats.

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Related: Marvel star Mahershala Ali talks about his approach to Blade in the MCU

The series is based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2021 novel of the same name and will be adapted by How to Get Away with Murder’s Abby Ajayi, who will also serve as showrunner for the eight-episode series.

The Plot has been commissioned by Onyx Collective, which is Disney’s content brand dedicated to programming from underrepresented voices, and will stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in all other territories (apart from Latin America, where it will air on Star+).

No release date has yet been confirmed for the series.

President of Freeform and Onyx Collective, Tara Duncan, said of the commission: “I was captivated with Hanff Korelitz’s book, The Plot, and Abby’s distinct point of view reinvents the story in a way that spoke to me and our mission at Onyx Collective.

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Related: WWE Superstar campaigns for role in Marvel’s Blade

“There are so many interesting angles and nuances, that having the creative genius that is Mahershala Ali at the center of this mystery, is just a dream.”

Mimi Valdés, who is one of the show’s executive producers, added: “Hollywood is still not greenlighting enough projects with multidimensional Black characters, stories that simply focus on our humanity. The rarity of a straight-to-series order, especially for BIPOC projects, is not lost on us.

“We are beyond humbled to work with such an amazing team of collaborators to bring this incredible book to life.”

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Eternals Post-Credits Scene Fuels Theories About New Marvel Team

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The following post contains SPOILERS for Eternals.

The arrival of Eternals on Disney+ has fans speculating once again — or maybe for the first time, since a lot of Marvel fans skipped Eternals in theaters — about the movie’s enigmatic post-credits scene. (Not to be confused with the film’s similarly confusing mid-credits scene, which introduces Harry Styles’ Eros and Patton Oswalt’s Pip the troll.)

In the final post-credits scene, Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, who has spent most of the movie acting like a mild-mannered English dude, stands alone in an office with a mysterious case. He opens it, revealing a sword wrapped in bloody bandages. Unintelligible whispers fill the soundtrack, as if some kind of ancient power or presence is calling out to Dane. An inscription carved into the inside of the case reads “Mors mihi lucrum” — death is my reward. Sounds like a totally normal and chill sword!

Dane paces around the room, then goes to touch the sword, which releases tiny little waves of power that seem to reach out to him in return. Just as he’s about to grab the blade, a voice calls out to him from off-camera: “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?” Dane turns to see who it is and there’s a sudden cut to black and the words “Eternals will return…” (Not the Eternals, just Eternals. They’re like the band Eagles. Don’t ever call them The Eagles, because that’s not their name. They’re just Eagles.)

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The voice speaking to Dane Whitman is uncredited in the film, and it’s such a brief appearance that the first audiences to see Eternals weren’t entirely sure who it even was. On Disney+, the subtitles only refer to the voice as “Mysterious Man.” But we now know that it belongs to Mahershala Ali, who has been announced as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade the Vampire Hunter.

The Dane Whitman of Marvel Comics — who’s also known as the superhero the Black Knight — doesn’t have a ton of history with Blade. But generally when a character shows up in a Marvel post-credits scene, they’re not just there for a gratuitous cameo; the appearance is meant to set up future appearances, establish connections between heroes, and often to tease future team-ups. And that has got fans wondering where Blade and Black Knight will show up next.

A lot of speculation is focused around the MCU’s Blade starting a group of supernatural heroes called the Midnight Suns. First introduced in the 1990s, the original comic book Midnight Suns were a loose collection of heroes including Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze (the original Ghost Rider at a time when he’d been freed of his skeleton-headed curse), Morbius (the vampire played by Jared Leto in his upcoming solo film), the Darkhold Redeemers (various magic-inclined heroes who defended the Darkhold, an all-powerful occult book that was seen in the possession of Wanda at the end of WandaVision), and a group of vampire hunters that included Blade called the Nightstalkers.

There’s also a video game in the works called Marvel’s Midnight Suns that features Blade and Ghost Rider, alongside other Marvel heroes like Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel. So it seems entirely feasible that Marvel could be setting the groundwork for some kind of Midnight Suns movie or Disney+ series that would feature Blade, Black Knight, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, and perhaps a few other characters like Wanda Maximoff.

It could be quite a while until we know Blade’s motives for sure. While Marvel is working on a solo Blade movie for Mahershala Ali, it’s yet to receive an official release date. Despite what that final title card promised, Eternals 2 hasn’t been officially announced yet either. The next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and it also features Wanda Maximoff, so it could provide us the next clues about where all this magic sword stuff is headed. That film is currently scheduled to open in theaters on May 6, 2022.

WWE Superstar campaigns for role in Marvel’s Blade

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WWE Superstar Mustafa Ali is campaigning for a mystery role in Marvel’s new Blade movie.

Marvel’s Blade, which currently has no release date, will star Mahershala Ali in the title role, after he made his MCU debut in the Eternals post-credit scene.

On Twitter, Mustafa shared a tweet regarding a new Marvel casting call which read: “Blade is casting for a South Asian male, 20s-30s. The actor must be open to training although actors with fight experience are encouraged for the role! Character description: ‘Though he’s taken a vow of silence, his eyes tell us he has been through [is] strife.’”

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Mustafa responded: “Hello @MarvelStudios, I think you’re looking for me. #BLADE.” Not long after Mustafa’s tweet, the wrestler managed to get #AliForBlade trending as fans and fellow WWE Superstars including Seth Rollins and Big E showed their support.

Marvel announced Blade at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, along with Mahershala Ali’s casting. Directing the film will be Bassam Tariq.

While filming is yet to begin on the project, Mahershala did recently give an update following his voice cameo in Eternals, telling Empire: “We’re getting there, we’re getting close.”

Meanwhile, back in August Mustafa explained to Digital Spy why it is important to him to make sure his heel character avoided any negative stereotypes that may have been seen in the past.

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Related: Every major WWE wrestler release of the 2020s – and where they are now

“For me the biggest thing is, I don’t want to be a heel, or be portrayed as a bad guy because of where I’m from, because of what my name is or because of my religion,” Mustafa said.

“I think those are detrimental to society, because I grew up with that feeling, I grew up with the feeling that I had to hide who I was. I had to hide what my religion was because anytime I saw someone on TV that looked like me they were being portrayed in a very negative, stereotypical way.

“That had real implications on my life, it still does to this day. I feel like I’m always fighting that,” he added. “So, with that being said, I do feel like doing a bad guy role or a heel role is perfectly fine, as long as I’m not reinforcing those negative stereotypes.”

Catch up on Raw, Smackdown, NXT and all the big WWE action via the WWE Network or . US viewers can access the WWE Network via .

Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Michael Jai White to Voice Blade

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News out of 2K and Firaxis Games about Marvel’s Midnight Suns has been relatively quiet since it lost its March 2022 release window late last year, but a new interview would appear to have revealed the very first voice actor for one of the game’s important characters. It is known that the video game will feature playable Marvel characters like Wolverine, Magik, Ghost Rider, and more, and if the voice actor for Blade is any indication – none other than Michael Jai White – the voice cast should likely be just as impressive.

According to a recent interview, White will be voicing Blade in the video game. “This superhero genre I’m still connected to,” White told ComingSoon. “I got a chance to play Bronze Tiger, and I’m the new voice of Blade for the Marvel game, the 2K [one]. So it’s a great opportunity. I get to play these iconic superheroes.”

Here’s how 2K describes Marvel’s Midnight Suns, in case you somehow missed it:

“Through a twisted marriage of magic and science, the nefarious force known as Hydra has revived Lilith, Mother of Demons, after centuries of slumber. Lilith will stop at nothing to complete an ancient prophecy and summon her evil master, Chthon. Pushed to the brink, the Avengers desperately look to fight fire with Hellfire by enlisting the help of the Midnight Suns – Nico Minoru, Blade, Magik, and Ghost Rider – young heroes with powers deeply rooted in the supernatural, formed to prevent the very prophecy Lilith aims to fulfill. Together, they resurrect an ancient warrior – the Hunter, Lilith’s forsaken child and the only hero known to have ever defeated her.”

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is currently scheduled to release for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store in the second half of 2022. As noted above, it had previously been set for March 2022. No definitive release date has been announced as of yet. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the upcoming Marvel-branded video game right here.

What do you think about what we have seen of Marvel’s Midnight Suns so far? Are you excited to learn that White will voice Blade in the title? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!

Blade casting call gives descriptions of supporting characters

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This article deals with RUMORS and SPOILERS, so beware!

A reboot of the Blade film franchise is gearing up at Marvel Studios, and the folks at Murphy’s Multiverse say they’ve gotten their hands on character descriptions that are being used as part of the casting process. The characters they’ve heard about are:

“Abid” is described as a burly, South Asian character who has taken a vow of silence after a turbulent life. “Huntley”, described as a man, 40-60, “Faiza”, a French-speaking North African female between 20 and 40

On the Murphy’s Multiverse website, they’re speculating that these characters are actually Blade’s fellow vampire hunters, introduced in the pages of Tomb of Dracula. They suspect that “Abid” is Taj Nital, “Huntley” is Quincy Harker, and “Faiza” is Rachel van Helsing:

Taj was indeed a burly, South Asian character who was first introduced in Tomb of Dracula #3, who did not speak; however, in the comics, he didn’t speak because he had his throat ripped out by vampires, so a slight change there. Taj, along with Rachel van Helsing, the granddaughter of great vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, worked with Quincy Harker to hunt down the world’s oldest vampire threat, Dracula. Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, eventually worked with Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula, and Blade to take on the vampire nation.

If Taj Nital, Quincy Harker, and Rachel van Helsing are indeed part of the story, it sounds like the new Blade movie could be building up to a confrontation with Dracula.

Blade himself is being played by Mahershala Ali, who made his debut as the character in an Eternals post-credits scene (although we only heard his voice there). Delroy Lindo is also in the cast, but we don’t know who he’s playing.

The Blade movie is set to be directed by Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) from a screenplay by Stacy Osei-Kuffour, who previously worked on the Watchmen TV series. Filming is expected to begin this summer.