The Direct reports that during a recent interview with actor Jeffrey Pierce, who stars as Perry in the HBO series The Last Of Us, the thespian revealed that Mahershala Ali was almost cast as the lead role until they decided to go with Pedro Pascal.
Pierce, 51, who voiced Tommy Miller in the original video game, thought he wouldn’t reprise his previous character if Ali received the role. However, after they went with Pascal, he knew he wouldn’t bring Miller to life due to the age difference between himself and the Chilean actor — a lose-lose situation for the man looking to return as Tom.
“I think initially they had talked to Mahershala Ali about playing Joel, which is an obvious cue that I’m not gonna play Tommy.” Pierce expressed. “And when they cast Pedro [Pascal], I knew like, yeah, that was certainly not going to happen regardless, I’m older than Pedro Pascal. So I was not under harboring any illusions about that, for sure.”
While Mahershala wasn’t our Joel, the Oakland native is set to star as Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade in the titular named film. The long-awaited film has had some delays over the years, but recently the movie has received a positive update.
According to the Film and Television Industry Alliance’s official database, Yann Demange is set to direct the upcoming horror movie, with filming scheduled for May 2023 between Atlanta and New Orleans. Ali and the Blade crew were supposed to begin filming in October 2022, but due to the departure of their original director Bassam Tariq and Mahershala being unhappy about the script, the scheduling was thrown off.
Marvel Studios’ Blade is currently scheduled for a September 6, 2024 release.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7t7XBnmWcp51ku6bD0micp6yVp8Gitc2mnKesX6KuqbHRrJ%2BapJFirq21jKGZqGWknbJuuMCsq2anlmLCtHmQa2ptb2NuhHKAjg%3D%3D