Ali took the stage at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday and put on a “Blade” baseball cap, sending audience members into a frenzy.
The “Moonlight” actor previously voiced the Prowler in the critically acclaimed movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and villain Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes in the first season of the Netflix/Marvel series “Luke Cage.”
Wesley Snipes previously portrayed Blade, a Marvel universe character with superhuman strength and senses who hunts vampires, in “Blade,” “Blade II” and “Blade: Trinity” in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Marvel has not yet announced a release date for the new “Blade” movie starring Ali, but that didn’t stop fans on Twitter from bursting with joy over the casting news.
“IT’S THE PERFECT CASTING!!!” one fan tweeted. “I am so excited!!! I love him!”
This is awesome:
“Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige said that Ali called the studio after winning the Oscar for his work Green Book. ‘When Marhershala calls, you answer,’ Feige said. At the meeting, Ali came right out and said that he wanted to do #Blade. That was that.” (Via @THR) pic.twitter.com/2oddKzpWzZ
— Marvelous Realm (@MarvelousRealm) July 21, 2019