Marvel Studios Updates: Mahershala Ali out as Blade, Samara Weaving cast as Emma Frost
There are some big Marvel Studios updates on the heels of San Diego Comic Con 2026.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day had a massive opening Thursday night bringing in a huge $72 million. That was big enough to shatter the record originally set in 2019 by Avengers: Endgame, which opened to $60 million. With this astonishing opening night, the box office forecast for Brand New Day has been bumped to likely topping Endgame’s opening weekend number of $357.1 million.
Friday should be equally huge with safe estimates tracking at $100 million. Of the 2026 major hits, Toy Story 5 holds the best opening of the year with $160 million followed by The Super Mario Galaxy with $131 million and The Odyssey with a strong $124 million, which also accounted for an exclusive IMAX window.
Brand New Day should easily be the new leader and seems like it will be the highest grossing installment of Spider-Man. That record currently belongs to its most recent predecessor, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which opened to $260.1 million at the height of the pandemic en route to a stunning $815 million total domestic haul, good enough for the third all-time slot on the domestic charts and No. 8 on the all-time worldwide chart with $1.9 billion.
You can already get a jump and pre-order the Spider-Man: Brand New Day on 4k Steelbook over at Amazon. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases).
In other Marvel Studios updates, Mahershala Ali announced he has moved on from his role as Blade.
“You had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie… I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them,” Ali said in an interview with GQ.
This comes seven years after the announcement at San Diego Comic Con 2019 where Ali was revealed as Blade at SDCC. This makes Wesley Snipes’ tongue-in-cheek line in Deadpool & Wolverine about there only being one Blade sounding more and more like the truth. Maybe Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige should just line Snipes up for another Blade sequel?
Despite announcing a second season was in the works, a Marvel Studios updates yesterday revealed that Wonder Man has actually been cancelled. Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II commented on the news on his Instagram account while making a sly remark referencing his 2026 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Wonder Man.
View this post on Instagram
While I wasn’t a fan of Wonder Man the series, Abdul-Mateen II was very good in it, and he had a very classy response to the show’s cancellation. Maybe there’s a chance that Wonder Man could show up in Avengers: Secret Wars next year?
To round out the Marvel Studios updates, Samara Weaving of Ready or Not fame has been announced as Emma Frost for the MCU X-Men films. Weaving should make for a terrific Emma Frost and has practice running around in white gowns in her films.
What do you think of all of these Marvel Studios updates? Were any disappointing or were you excited about the casting news?
Photo Credit: Sony, Disney