MCU’s Blade movie may be dead, but Mahershala Ali and filmmaker Bassam Tariq have created an original action movie from its ashes.
Written and directed by Tariq, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother stars Ali as Latif, a Muslim hitman, who must protect his family from a violent cult leader (played by John Cho).
In an interview with Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko, Ali and Tariq shared how the Blade movie led to Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
Ali said of Blade, “I’d been attached to that project — if you count to this date — like seven years. But, a couple of years ago, I knew it wasn’t happening, essentially. And so, for me, it was more of, ‘Alright, how do I get back to business?’ Because it’s just so much time and so much of my energy going toward that project. So once it was clear to me that that wasn’t happening, it kind of gave me a certain freedom to begin to really take ownership of my schedule and of my life, so to speak. And so, as you are sitting back and waiting for something to come through that will resonate with you, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother came through.”
Ali continued, referring to Tariq, “And I think the only reason it came through was because we didn’t do Blade together.”
Ali was announced as the lead of the MCU’s Blade at Comic-Con in 2019. He and Tariq had known of each other, but first met because Tariq was attached to direct in July of 2021. However, in the fall of 2022, Tariq left the helm, and Lovecraft Country director Yann Demange took his place. The split with Marvel was a peaceable one, and in a statement to THR, the studio said Tariq would stay on the Blade project as an executive producer.
Speaking to Mashable, Tariq revealed a bit about the reported creative differences he had with the Blade movie producers. He explained, “I think the frustrations for me were really about not giving me the reins to write. And I’m a writer, like that’s what I do for a living. I write. So I was like, I’m gonna write, and I’m gonna write something that I’ve always been working on, and just bring that into the world.”
Tariq also reflected on what he learned from working with Kevin Feige and his team during the development of the Blade movie.
“I learned a lot in that process,” Tariq began, “And like what’s so brilliant about Kevin [Feige] and [producers] Victoria [Alonso] and Lou[is D’Esposito] was that they really cared a lot about the audience. I came from art house, where I was all about like, ‘Oh, what’s the heart saying?’ Which is great, which I still am all about. But I think to balance, I do like going in and seeing audiences and how they were connecting to these people and movies, characters, and all that stuff.”
Tariq continued by expressing his respect for the sprawling superhero film series, saying, “I grew up on comics as well. But I think as I got older, I kind of took a step back. But to see how much audiences really cared – and how much [the MCU producers] cared about audiences — I was like, ‘Oh, this is something that we need to really start thinking about more as directors, is like where’s the audience? How do you really build this?’ And I think ambition was something that I always saw in Kevin, like thinking, ‘Well, how do we go bigger?'”
Tariq applied that lesson to Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, followed by a theatrical release across the U.S.
For more from Mashable’s interview with Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq, look for our full video release the week of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother‘s theatrical debut on Sept. 25.