Mahershala Ali Talks His Upcoming Introduction To The Marvel Cinematic Universe As 'BLADE' [Video]

Marvel is finally bringing the “day-walker”, BLADE, into the Cinematic Universe, with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali taking over the role.

We don’t have a solid release date as of yet for BLADE but he did make a vocal appearance in Marvel’s recent flick ‘Eternals'.’

The vocal cameo by Ali marks his first official appearance in the MCU. Ali discussed the anxiety he has surrounding playing Blade in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert.

Ali told the “Late Show” host, “The anticipation is so great… my excitement for any role is pretty equal, honestly, because I feel the responsibility is always the same. But I’ve never walked into a role where the anticipation of it was so great. Where people were already so familiar with the character. And have real opinions, and points of view, and all that. So it feels different. There’s clearly an added layer of pressure, which… I will embrace.”

“You just lose a lot of sleep over it,” Ali explained his preparation for bringing Blade to life for the first time in Eternals. “I was losing sleep over this line because, ideally, you want to be talking once you are filming… and 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, ya know. So 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 makes it feel real. It’s like okay, now we’re going.”

Ali adds, “Now I gotta get swole and jacked.”