Where’s Blade? Fans wonder why Marvel Studios cutbacks seem to be landing on Black heroes

Photo Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN/Disney/Marvel Studios/Everett Collection/Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Mahershala Ali is the star of the new action thriller, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.” But he’s been asked about a different movie — a reboot of the 1998 hit “Blade” — while promoting the film.

The highly anticipated project would have brought the vampire-slaying antihero, with Ali in the role, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the actor recently told GQ he’s moved on from “Blade,” despite relocating his family to Atlanta for filming and training so hard that he blew his knee out. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has said he feels like a “gigantic loser and failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”

Ali said he agreed: “He should feel that way.”

The “Blade” project, which fans and the media view as effectively abandoned, joins a list of recently stalled or scrapped titles from Marvel Studios, in stark contrast to the era when its Marvel Cinematic Universe kept expanding through seemingly unlimited spinoff films and TV shows. A number of those projects — like “Blade” and the Disney+ series “Wonder Man,” which was initially renewed, then canceled anyway — feature Black protagonists.

As planned series and movies fall by the wayside, Black fans are asking whether the MCU is purposely neglecting and sidelining its Black characters.

“All the Black-led shows seem to have a harder road to get either made or publicized or treated in the same fashion as other properties,” said Carl Waldron, a longtime Marvel fan who writes about Black superheroes on his website, Super. Black.

A representative for Marvel declined to comment on the record.

For some fans, these latest decisions feel far removed from the era of exuberance surrounding 2018’s “Black Panther.” While Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther wasn’t the first Black superhero to make it to the big screen, the film broke box office records , proving that a predominantly Black cast and superhero story could have mainstream success. Its 2022 sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” grossed more than $859 million worldwide and earned Angela Bassett the MCU’s first acting Oscar nomination .

Feige has spoken of Marvel’s commitment to diverse storytelling for years, reiterating his views while speaking to journalists last year. “Marvel represents the world outside your window,” he said . “I’ve always said it, before DEI and woke became a thing and after DEI and woke became a thing — are we after? I don’t think so.”

When Marvel’s green light seemed permanently turned on, that approach went beyond “Black Panther”: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021) became the MCU’s first Asian-led film. “Eternals” (2021) featured a multiethnic cast, as well as the MCU’s first out gay superhero and first deaf superhero. Characters given the spotlight in the MCU’s Disney+ offerings included Pakistani American teen Kamala Khan in “Ms. Marvel,” deaf Native American superhero Maya Lopez in “Echo” and a young Black woman, Riri Williams, in “Ironheart.”

More recently, the now-canceled “Wonder Man” — which earned lead actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II an Emmy nomination — focused on Simon Williams, a struggling Haitian American actor trying to conceal his otherworldly abilities.

But many of these projects, especially those developed for streaming, have either been canceled or set aside after one season. And fans have been scratching their heads over changes to the MCU slate in recent years, especially when it comes to projects featuring Black protagonists.

The “Armor Wars” film , originally planned as a series focused on Don Cheadle’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes (a.k.a. War Machine), is nowhere to be seen. (“What’s ‘Armor Wars’?” Cheadle quipped during a 2024 “Today” show appearance.) On social media, fan forums and podcasts, fans and other observers have asked how the “Blade” reboot could fall apart even as a new “Ghost Rider” with Ryan Gosling was announced. Some wondered where Monica Rambeau , a powerful Black superhero last seen in “The Marvels,” has gone — and why her last film is missing from the studio’s official watchlist for “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

“I think that the people that have the most control over what they want to put out are either afraid and/or they do not know how to handle characters of color,” said Kira Brown, a Marvel fan who runs Room Full of Blerds, a platform for Black independent comic creators. She noted that the decision to backtrack and cancel “Wonder Man,” one of the most specifically Black stories in the MCU, especially felt like “a slap in the face.”

The series struck her as lived-in and real, while other Black-led MCU storylines have lacked depth. She pointed to a scene in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” where Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson is denied a loan due to having no income — an acknowledgement of racism in the banking system, but one devoid of any detail or explanation, leaving viewers confused as to what, exactly, the moment was trying to get at .

“You can’t just have Sam walk into this bank and get denied and not be brave enough to have fuller conversations about that,” Brown said.

That effort, and others like it, felt forced and designed to appease Black fans, she said: “Here’s a Black face on the screen. Here’s kind of a Black story, and we’ll sprinkle some Wakandans in it too, just to spice things up for you.”

Marvel did do better in “Wonder Man,” Brown said. In the third episode, Simon’s family hosts a birthday cookout in his childhood home, in the predominately Hispanic neighborhood of Pacoima, Los Angeles. In the scene, Simon’s family speaks Kreyòl — although to varying degrees of proficiency — and the camera lingers on the Haitian feast presented on the table.

While all walks of life can relate to the idea of having a family cookout, she said, “those dishes are what makes it a Black experience.”

The MCU franchise seemed to peak in 2018-2019, as it wrapped up the final phase of the Infinity Saga, which included “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” But several films that followed, such as “Eternals,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Thunderbolts,” performed far below expectations. Viewers began to complain of superhero fatigue as more and more new series debuted on Disney+ and still more films rolled out.

Then Disney announced it would reduce its “Star Wars” and Marvel Studios output. “You pull back not just to focus but as part of our cost containment initiative,” said then- Disney CEO Bob Iger in 2023 . “Spending less on what we make and making less.”

As some projects moved forward, others faltered. The “Blade” reboot, announced with great fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, cycled through multiple directors and screenwriters . (One of those directors, Bassam Tariq, directed Mahershala Ali in “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”) Ali has been vocal about his displeasure with how Marvel Studios handled the situation: “They have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie,” he told GQ .

Ali’s comments have struck a chord with fans, Waldron said. The failure to launch “Blade,” while “Ghost Rider” moves forward, feels like Marvel sacrificed a Black story for one that isn’t, he said. And as a father, he can’t help but notice that the MCU currently seems to lack characters that his kids can see themselves in — part of what made “Blade” so exciting.

Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Ali is right, said Jeffrey A. Brown, a professor at Bowling Green State University who has studied superheroes in media. If Disney can make live action remakes of every animated film and movie sequels no one asked for, then why not reboot “Blade”?

“They’ve got the money, the power, the distribution. They own everything,” he said. “If Disney can’t make a viable ‘Blade’ movie, then what’s going on?”

That doesn’t mean that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is intentionally discriminatory, Brown said. “Wonder Man” was a great TV show, he said, but might struggle to sell toys or other merchandise against more popular characters like Iron Man or Spider-Man, whose fourth Tom Holland-led film “Brand New Day” made $2.5 billion worldwide. Similarly, a new “Blade” movie might bring in $500 million, he estimated, whereas having Robert Downey Jr. back in the MCU could be worth $2 billion. ( Downey is returning in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” film, with the company announcing he’ll take on the new role of Doctor Doom, despite the MCU previously killing off his Iron Man character. “Captain America” actor Chris Evans is coming back as well, even though his “Cap” is supposed to be retired.)

“Blade” isn’t likely to get the same resources as other titles in the MCU, Brown said. “It’s really just a microcosm of Black representation in movies and television in general.”

Promoting diverse characters is also not as safe a corporate strategy as it was a few years ago. The Trump administration has been hostile toward nonwhite representation across an array of institutions, while it has also picked fights with Disney and its ABC network, leading to an FCC probe of the company and an ongoing legal battle .

The political moment could be affecting the types of stories the MCU may choose to tell and what characters it chooses to elevate, Brown said. A billion-dollar company has to take the current pressures into account, he said.

“They’re being told, ‘You change this, or we’re going to have the FCC take away your license,’” Brown said. “At the same time that the government is saying the Smithsonian can’t talk about slavery as American history. I think Disney is going to be around a lot longer than political administrations, but they have to walk that tightrope right now.”

Through the long course of the MCU project, Marvel Studios has succeeded in diversifying its fanbase. It’s succeeded in diversifying its roster of heroes. But who is actually important in the universe? Whose stories are integral the larger MCU timeline?

That’s where some fans see the MCU stumbling. “We’re still fighting to see those stories as viable in media,” Waldron said.

The MCU has shown that it can raise a superhero character’s stature in popular culture, or give a boost of super-serum to an actor’s career. Kyle Stanley, a media scholar at the University of Nevada, Reno who has studied the MCU, noted that Iron Man was a lower-level hero when the company decided to build a movie around him, and Downey was not the kind of star who anchored blockbusters. But the MCU made Downey’s character foundational to its entire MCU project.

It’s that type of treatment that Black characters are missing, Stanley said.

“Marvel is doing a great job of representation,” Stanley said. “But investment — that tells us who Marvel thinks is important.”

图片由 Alberto Mier/CNN/迪士尼/漫威影业/Everett Collection/Kevin Winter/Getty Images 提供

马赫沙拉·阿里是新动作惊悚片《你的母亲，你的母亲，你的母亲》的主演。但在宣传这部电影时，他却被问及另一部电影——1998 年热门电影《刀锋战士》的重启版。

这部备受期待的电影原本计划将由阿里饰演的吸血鬼猎人反英雄角色带入漫威电影宇宙。但这位演员最近告诉《GQ》杂志，尽管他为了拍摄这部电影将家人搬到了亚特兰大，并且进行了极其艰苦的训练以至于膝盖受伤，但他已经不再考虑《刀锋战士》了。漫威影业总裁凯文·费奇表示，他觉得自己“是个巨大的失败者，没能和马赫沙拉·阿里合作成功”。

阿里表示同意：“他应该有这种感觉。”

粉丝和媒体普遍认为《刀锋战士》项目已被搁置，它加入了漫威影业近期一系列停滞或取消的项目名单，这与漫威电影宇宙此前不断推出衍生电影和电视剧、持续扩张的盛况形成了鲜明对比。其中一些项目——例如《刀锋战士》和迪士尼+剧集《神奇人》（该剧最初获得续订，但最终还是被取消）——都以黑人为主角。

随着计划中的剧集和电影一个个搁浅，黑人粉丝们开始质疑漫威电影宇宙是否故意忽视和边缘化其黑人角色。

“所有由黑人主导的剧集似乎都面临着更艰难的制作、宣传或待遇，无法与其他作品享有同等待遇，”长期关注漫威的粉丝卡尔·沃尔德伦说道，他在他的网站 Super. Black 上撰写关于黑人超级英雄的文章。

漫威的一位代表拒绝就此事发表正式评论。

对一些影迷来说，这些最新的决定与2018年《黑豹》上映时的盛况相比，显得格格不入。虽然查德维克·博斯曼饰演的黑豹并非首位登上大银幕的黑人超级英雄，但这部电影打破了票房纪录，证明了以黑人演员为主的超级英雄故事也能获得主流成功。其2022年的续集《黑豹：瓦坎达万岁》全球票房超过8.59亿美元，并为安吉拉·贝塞特赢得了漫威电影宇宙的首个奥斯卡最佳女主角提名。

费奇多年来一直强调漫威致力于多元化叙事，去年在接受记者采访时也重申了这一观点。“漫威代表着你窗外的世界，”他说。“我一直都这么说，在多元、公平和包容（DEI）以及觉醒文化兴起之前和之后——我们现在是‘之后’吗？我不这么认为。”

当漫威似乎永久开启了电影制作的绿灯后，这种模式远不止于《黑豹》：《尚气与十环传奇》（2021）成为漫威电影宇宙（MCU）首部以亚裔为主角的电影。《永恒族》（2021）汇集了多元种族演员，并诞生了MCU首位公开出柜的超级英雄和首位聋人超级英雄。在MCU的Disney+平台上，一些角色也获得了关注，例如《惊奇女士》中的巴基斯坦裔美国少女卡玛拉·汗、《回声》中的聋人美洲原住民超级英雄玛雅·洛佩兹以及《钢铁之心》中的年轻黑人女性莉莉·威廉姆斯。

最近，现已停播的电视剧《神奇人》（Wonder Man）——该剧为主演叶海亚·阿卜杜勒-迈丁二世赢得了艾美奖提名——聚焦于西蒙·威廉姆斯，一位苦苦挣扎的海地裔美国演员，他试图隐藏自己超凡脱俗的能力。

但许多此类项目，尤其是那些专为流媒体平台开发的项目，要么被取消，要么只播出了一季就被搁置。近年来，漫威电影宇宙（MCU）的节目安排变动令粉丝们百思不得其解，尤其是在以黑人为主角的项目中。

原计划以唐·钱德尔饰演的詹姆斯·“罗德”·罗德斯（又名战争机器）为主角的剧集《装甲战争》电影版如今却杳无音讯。（钱德尔在2024年做客《今日秀》时曾打趣道：“《装甲战争》是什么？”）在社交媒体、粉丝论坛和播客节目中，粉丝和其他观察人士纷纷质疑，为何在瑞恩·高斯林主演的新版《恶灵骑士》宣布开拍之际，《刀锋战士》重启计划却遭遇了滑铁卢。一些人还疑惑，曾在《漫威宇宙》中亮相的强大黑人超级英雄莫妮卡·兰博究竟去了哪里——以及为何她的这部遗作没有出现在漫威影业为《复仇者联盟：末日》准备的官方片单中。

派拉蒙影业/埃弗雷特收藏公司供图

“我认为那些对作品内容拥有最大控制权的人，要么是害怕，要么是不知道如何处理有色人种角色，”基拉·布朗说道。她是一位漫威粉丝，运营着一个名为“满屋子书呆子”（Room Full of Blerds）的平台，专门为黑人独立漫画创作者提供支持。她指出，漫威决定取消《神奇人》（Wonder Man）——漫威电影宇宙中最具黑人特色的故事之一——尤其让人感觉“像是当头一棒”。

她觉得这部剧集真实可信，而其他以黑人为主角的漫威电影宇宙故事线则缺乏深度。她指出《猎鹰与冬兵》中有一幕，安东尼·麦凯饰演的萨姆·威尔逊因为没有收入而被拒绝贷款——这虽然承认了银行体系中的种族歧视，但却没有任何细节或解释，让观众不明白这一幕究竟想要表达什么。

布朗说：“你不能让萨姆走进这家银行，被拒绝后，却没有勇气就此事进行更深入的讨论。”

她说，那次努力以及其他类似的努力都感觉很勉强，是为了讨好黑人粉丝而设计的：“屏幕上出现了一张黑人的面孔。这是一个黑人故事，我们还会加入一些瓦坎达人，只是为了让你们觉得更有趣。”

布朗说，漫威在《神奇人》这一集中做得更好。在第三集中，西蒙的家人在他位于洛杉矶帕科伊马（一个以西班牙裔为主的社区）的童年故居举办了一场生日烧烤聚会。在这一幕中，西蒙的家人用克里奥尔语交谈——尽管他们的熟练程度不一——镜头也长时间停留在桌上的海地盛宴上。

她说，虽然各行各业的人都能理解家庭烧烤的想法，“但正是这些菜肴让它成为一种黑人体验。”

漫威电影宇宙（MCU）似乎在2018-2019年达到了巅峰，当时它完成了“无限传奇”的最终阶段，其中包括《黑豹》、《复仇者联盟4：终局之战》和《蜘蛛侠：英雄远征》。但随后的几部电影，例如《永恒族》、《蚁人2：量子危机》和《霹雳特工队》，票房表现远低于预期。随着越来越多的新剧集在Disney+上线，以及更多电影的推出，观众开始抱怨超级英雄题材的疲劳。

随后，迪士尼宣布将减少《星球大战》和漫威影业的产量。时任迪士尼首席执行​​官鲍勃·艾格在2023年表示：“缩减规模不仅是为了集中精力，也是我们控制成本计划的一部分。我们要减少投入，减少产量。”

一些项目进展顺利，而另一些则步履维艰。《刀锋战士》重启版于2019年在圣地亚哥动漫展上高调宣布，之后却几经易手，更换了多位导演和编剧。（其中一位导演巴萨姆·塔里克曾执导过马赫沙拉·阿里主演的《你的母亲，你的母亲，你的母亲》。）阿里曾公开表达他对漫威影业处理此事方式的不满：“他们有数十亿美元的资金，如果他们想拍这部电影，我们早就拍了。”他告诉《GQ》杂志。

沃尔德伦表示，阿里的话引起了粉丝的共鸣。他说，漫威放弃推出《刀锋战士》，转而推进《恶灵骑士》，感觉就像为了一个非黑人故事而牺牲了一个黑人故事。作为一名父亲，他不禁注意到，漫威电影宇宙目前似乎缺少孩子们能从中找到共鸣的角色——而这正是《刀锋战士》如此吸引人的原因之一。

克里斯·皮泽洛/Invision/美联社

“阿里说得对，”鲍灵格林州立大学研究媒体中超级英雄的教授杰弗里·A·布朗说道，“如果迪士尼可以把每一部动画电影都翻拍成真人版，拍出没人想要的电影续集，那为什么不能重启《刀锋战士》呢？”

“他们有钱、有实力、有发行渠道。他们拥有一切，”他说。“如果迪士尼都拍不出一部像样的《刀锋战士》电影，那到底是怎么回事？”

布朗表示，这并不意味着漫威电影宇宙有意歧视。“神奇先生”是一部很棒的电视剧，他说，但它在玩具或其他周边产品的销售上可能难以与钢铁侠或蜘蛛侠等更受欢迎的角色相媲美。蜘蛛侠的第四部电影《全新的一天》（由汤姆·赫兰德主演）在全球斩获了25亿美元的票房。同样，他估计一部新的《刀锋战士》电影可能带来5亿美元的票房，而让小罗伯特·唐尼回归漫威电影宇宙则可能价值20亿美元。（唐尼将在即将上映的《复仇者联盟：末日》中回归，漫威宣布他将出演毁灭博士一角，尽管漫威电影宇宙此前已经让他的钢铁侠角色“牺牲”。“美国队长”的扮演者克里斯·埃文斯也将回归，尽管他饰演的“美国队长”角色应该已经退休了。）

布朗表示，《刀锋战士》不太可能获得与漫威电影宇宙其他作品相同的资源。“它实际上只是黑人形象在电影和电视领域整体表现的一个缩影。”

如今，推广多元化角色已不再像几年前那样是一种稳妥的企业策略。特朗普政府对非白人代表在众多机构中的表现持敌对态度，同时还与迪士尼及其旗下的ABC电视台发生冲突，导致美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）对该公司展开调查，并引发了一场旷日持久的法律诉讼。

布朗表示，当前的政治局势可能会影响漫威电影宇宙（MCU）选择讲述的故事类型以及重点塑造的角色。他指出，一家市值十亿美元的公司必须考虑到当前的各种压力。

布朗说：“他们被告知，‘要么改正，要么我们就让联邦通信委员会吊销你们的执照。’与此同时，政府却说史密森尼博物馆不能把奴隶制作为美国历史来谈论。我认为迪士尼的寿命会比任何一届政府都长，但他们现在必须小心翼翼地走钢丝。”

在漫威电影宇宙（MCU）漫长的发展历程中，漫威影业成功地拓展了其粉丝群体，也成功地丰富了其超级英雄阵容。但在这个宇宙中，究竟谁才是真正重要的？谁的故事才是MCU宏大时间线不可或缺的一部分？

一些粉丝认为漫威电影宇宙（MCU）的症结就在于此。“我们仍在努力让这些故事在媒体上获得成功，”沃尔德伦说道。

漫威电影宇宙（MCU）已经证明，它能够提升超级英雄角色在流行文化中的地位，或者为演员的演艺事业注入强劲动力。内华达大学里诺分校的媒体学者凯尔·斯坦利（Kyle Stanley）曾研究过MCU，他指出，在漫威决定围绕钢铁侠打造一部电影时，钢铁侠还只是一个地位较低的超级英雄，而小罗伯特·唐尼也并非那种能够撑起票房大片的明星。但MCU却将唐尼饰演的钢铁侠打造成了整个MCU项目的基石。

斯坦利说，黑人角色正是缺少这种待遇。

斯坦利说：“漫威在多元化方面做得非常出色。但投入多少——这才能真正反映出漫威认为谁才是重要的。”