Mahershala Ali On Making His Debut In The MCU

Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali recently made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We won't spoil it here in the first few paragraphs, of course, just in case you don't know what it is yet. If you go past the next picture, though, all bets are off. You've been warned. Ali did an interview on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," where he spoke about the anxiety that comes along with taking on something like a role in the MCU. 

To be perfectly honest, if you haven't heard who he's going to play, I'm stunned. You really do have to tweet at me and tell me how you managed it. I was at the premiere of the film he debuted in and the spoilers were on social media before we even left the theater.

One more warning! THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MAHERSHALA ALI'S MCU ROLE! That's in all caps, friends, and bolded. I've yelled it into the void. Turn back now. Here be dragons! 

(Note: He is not playing a dragon.)

It's got to be stressful, taking on a role in the MCU. Mahershala Ali will be playing Blade, the half-human, half-vampire daywalker in an upcoming film. He appeared in voice form in the "Eternals" after-credits scene. It was with Kit Harington's Dane Whitman. In it, Dane is checking out a family sword. He hears a voice in the background saying, "Are you sure you're ready for that, Mr. Whitman?" That's Ali voicing Blade. In the interview he says:

"You lose a lot of sleep over it. Like, I was losing a lot of sleep over this line, because ideally, you want to be talking once you are filming. 100% of the time, my first day on any set, on any job, I hate it, I hate how I sound. I don't believe myself. You're trying to get comfortable in the character, so to have to talk before you're even actually filming was challenging. But I'm grateful for it, because it made it feel real, it's like 'OK, now we're going.'"

A little background: Dane is part of a "complicated" family, as he says in the film. That family goes back to the days of King Arthur, and one of Dane's ancestors is Sir Percy, the Black Knight. Something called the Ebony Blade has been passed down through his family line. It feeds on negativity, so that's certainly going to cause some issues.

FYI: Ali has appeared in the Marvel Universe before on the small screen. He played Cottonmouth in the first season of "Luke Cage." Blade was played in earlier films by Wesley Snipes. 

There is no date for the new "Blade" movie yet, but stay tuned!