Naturally, it also helped that Mahershala Ali was also a Marvel Cinematic Universe alum, as he actually played the role of Cottonmouth on the Netflix series adaptation of Luke Cage. When you’re already in the Marvel family, it doesn’t hurt to ask what other openings are available, especially when Blade is on the books to come back. Those ideas in motion, Ali asked his agent to see what the status was on the dormant intellectual property, and he told that part of the story through the following remarks: