Taika Waititi Has the Best Reaction to Mahershala Ali’s Blade Reveal

Of all of the announcements to come out of Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, nothing took fans by surprise quite like the news that Mahershala Ali will be playing Blade. Based off of a photo from the event, it looks like some of Marvel’s other cast and crew members were pretty surprised too. A photo from Kara DeFrias has made the rounds online, which appears to show Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi being pretty enamored by Ali’s arrival at the panel.

While there’s always the chance that Waititi was looking at something else other than Ali, the way the photo is unintentionally staged has delighted quite a lot of Marvel fans.

Ali’s casting as Blade – much less news that the character would be officially rebooted for the MCU – certainly took fans by surprise. As Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently revealed, Ali playing Blade came about in an equally-unexpected way, with the actor calling up Marvel and expressing an interest in playing the role after winning his second Oscar for Green Book.

“When Marhershala calls, you answer,” Feige explained.

Unfortunately, it sounds like it might be a while until Blade hits the big screen, as Feige has since confirmed that the film will not be a part of Phase 4. But even then, it sounds like Marvel Studios is excited to get their hands on the character.

“We still think he’s a great character. He’s a really fun character,” Feige said in 2017. “We think this movie going into a different side of the universe would have the potential to have him pop up, but between the movies, the Netflix shows, the ABC shows there are so many opportunities for the character to pop up as you’re now seeing with Ghost Rider on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That rather than team up with another studio on that character, let’s do something on our own. What that is? Where that will be? We’ll see.”

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If…? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.