With last week marking the 20th anniversary of Blade, many people (including myself) rewatched the film. After seeing it, I came to two conclusions. The first is that Blade is an absolutely incredible movie and is arguably the first modern superhero pic, acting as almost a prototype of what would become the MCU style of comic book adaptation. The second is that – damn – I really miss Wesley Snipes as the vampire hunter.
Thankfully, I may not have to miss him that much longer, as the actor’s mentioned the possibility of reprising the role in an interview with Vice. When asked about the chances of seeing a fourth Blade movie at some point, Snipes gave a surprisingly positive answer, saying:
“There are a lot of conversations going around right now and we’re very blessed to have the enthusiasm and interest in something coming from that world again. We’ve created two projects that fit perfectly into this world and, when people see them, I think they’re only going to have a problem with deciding which one they love the most.”
According to Snipes, his team have been in conversations with Marvel Studios (who the rights to the character reverted to in 2012) for the last two years, most likely discussing how the Blade IP could fit into the wider franchise. As the actor explained:
“All the main execs [at Marvel] and my team, we’ve been discussing for the past two years. Everyone’s enthusiastic about it, everybody gets it. But they got a business to run and they gotta square the things that they gotta figure out before they can get to it, I guess. In the meantime, we got a business to run and our own slate of things to do so…
But the next time you see something in [the Blade universe], mark my words: what we did before is child’s play compared to what we can do now.”
It sounds promising, but how could this shake out? Perhaps first and foremost is the simple fact that Blade: Trinity came out 14 years ago and Snipes is now 56. Sure, Blade does age very slowly in the comics, but it might be a stretch for the actor to play the same version of the character we last saw in the original trilogy. However, it’s possible that we could see an MCU iteration of Blade who’s aged over the course of his vampire-fighting career instead.
Either way, tell us, would you be psyched to watch Snipes’ Blade hanging out with the rest of the MCU crowd? Let us know in the comments section down below.