Mahershala Ali’s ‘Blade’ Replacement Officially Embarrasses Marvel With Perfect 100% Score

Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq’s Marvel collaboration fell through. But they didn’t walk away empty-handed. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a movie that emerged from the ashes of Marvel‘s failed Blade project, has already established a strong debut on Rotten Tomatoes. The action thriller had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2026.

The Ali-Tariq collaboration currently holds a perfect 100% Tomatometer score with 16 critic reviews. TheWrap described it as a movie “they were always meant to make.” Life has come full circle for the duo, who first met while developing Marvel’s Blade, which ultimately fell apart.

What Is Mahershala Ali’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother About?

Mahershala Ali as Latif in Bassam Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother | Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Ali plays Latif, a Muslim hitman, in Bassam Tariq’s TIFF debut. He is a father to three children, Fatiha, Qadir, and a newborn girl. After his wife dies unexpectedly, he must protect the children from the dangers of his criminal past. John Cho plays Pastor Hwan Yoon in the film, a radical Christian pastor who becomes Latif’s antagonist.

In an interview with GQ, Ali noted that he wouldn’t have been able to make both movies. So in a way, because Blade fell through, the director had the “time, space, energy, and focus” to work on Your Mother and reapproach him. Ali said,

And I was able to use those skills that I had been working on for over a year training for ‘Blade.’ In that way, I feel creatively redeemed on some level, just in my own journey between me, myself, and I.

Why Was Marvel’s Blade Cancelled

Blade 1970s Look | Credit: Marvel Comics

In 2019, Mahershala Ali was announced as Marvel‘s Blade. In 2021, Bassam Tariq joined the project as the director. He worked on it for nearly a year and a half before leaving in September 2022. In a statement to GQ, he said that he had actually begun developing Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother before he started working on Blade. He mentioned that in early drafts, he didn’t even name the protagonist, simply calling him “Mahershala,” because he knew the two-time Academy Award winner was his man for the role.

Tariq’s version of Blade was reportedly set in the 1920s, at least partially. After he left the project, it went through several other directors and writers before ultimately falling through. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige previously told the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he felt like a “gigantic loser and failure” for letting Blade slip through his fingers.

Ali himself is quite done with the project. He told GQ, “If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it.” Although Blade fell through, Ali and Tariq found a better way to execute their collaboration through Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is set for a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on September 25, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 9.