The MCU may have let Mahershala Ali slip through its fingers with vampire hunter Blade, but Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker revealed why he didn’t “fumble the bag” with the Oscar-winning actor for his turn as iconic crime boss Cottonmouth.
“I didn’t fumble the bag the first time,” Coker wrote on Twitter in response to a fan suggesting Marvel fumbled Ali twice.
Ali played Cornell Stokes, AKA Cottonmouth, in the first season of Luke Cage and instantly became one of the standout characters in a packed roster of Marvel’s Netflix TV outings.
Cottonmouth’s death in the show may have come as a shock – and opened up a power vacuum at Harlem’s Paradise – but came about due to Ali’s packed schedule. In a moment of serendipity, Ali departing Luke Cage also allowed him to film Green Book, a film for which he won Best Actor.
“He took the role because it was a limited appearance. He was always going to die in episode 7, by design. He made Luke Cage, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight simultaneously. He was killing it on Luke Cage and Marvel TV and the other actors begged me to change my mind, which would have locked him into a long term contract (and cost him the Green Book Oscar) but I kept my word to him on a handshake. That’s why we’re friends to this day. Always keep your word.”
Unlike Luke Cage, Ali’s other experience with Marvel is less straightforward.
Ali was attached to Blade, first announced at 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con. Multiple directors and writers attempted to get the project off the ground, with Ali first portraying Blade in a voice cameo in 2021’s Eternals.
Ultimately, Blade went nowhere. Ali voiced his frustrations in an interview with GQ earlier this month.
“No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on,” Ali said.
For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies currently in the works, as well as all the latest news on Marvel Phase 6.