MCU has grown really big in the span of the last 11 years and it is open to bringing in more new characters now more than ever. Next year will begin with Captain Marvel and end with Spider-Man: Far From Home but past that, Marvel will be moving into a new Phase altogether which will be carried forward by the new characters which were introduced in Phase 3. With the likes of Captain America, Iron Man and Hulk being out of the game, they will make room for more new characters like Moon Knight, Nova and even Blade to make it to the larger shared Universe.
While everything that Marvel did in the 90s seemed to be failing and it is X-Men and Spider-Man who are considered as the real starters of Superhero movies, there is one name that people keep forgetting when it comes to giving credit for the Superhero genre, and it is none other than Blade!
All other projects that Marvel tried during the 90s and the early 2000s were massive failures and none of those were actually able to get an audience to the theatres or even make it to the theatres on many occasions, it was Blade who turned out to be a great success and actually got in the first ever Superhero trilogy for any Marvel franchise including the ones that Sony and Fox had.
All three Blade movies were in fact pretty profitable for the studios even though the final movie sucked real hard. The first movie made $131 Million worldwide, the second one followed with even bigger numbers having brought in $155 Million, and then the third one came in with the lowest numbers having grossed $128 Million. Still, all three movies earned substantial profits as each movie had lower budgets around $40-65 Million mark. Wesley Snipes proved to be amazing as the Vampire Hunter of the Marvel Universe.
This is a character that is actually irreplaceable as no one can play him as good as Wesley Snipes. The Hollywood veteran has talked about returning as the character for quite a while now, and now it finally seems that Marvel is working things out for the character. Snipes recently talked about the future of the character where he focused on the matter of either reprising the role or Marvel bringing in a new actor to take on the role. He said:
“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. 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.”
Blade was a great entry in the Horror genre and as we have seen lately, Marvel has been trying different genres within the Superhero genre itself, they could easily adapt the horrors of Blade in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe as this particular genre has not been tapped by Marvel yet. The movies have been mostly light and comedic and Blade could allow a darker feature.
Snipes is the perfect choice for the character and he still has it in him to stick with the character for the long haul even if he is 56 years currently. He talked about how difficult it would be to find a new actor who could really do justice to a character that Snipes completely understands and has been successful with:
“There’s a lot of pieces that have to come together. I mean wow. Who’s that guy? And one that can overcome everybody’s preconceived idea of who Blade is supposed to be. Skill-wise, there’s not a lot of guys out there that dance, that do the martial arts, that act well and can have that Blade flavor. Not a lot of chocolate guys out there. If they’re gonna go chocolate. If they’re gonna go vanilla… ehhhh, I don’t know. Non-traditional casting: I’m with it. I’ve been a beneficiary of it. I don’t know if it would be good for marketing but you never know. So, yeah, it’s a tough one. And they gotta be in shape and have some sex appeal. F-cking Blade has some sex appeal. Maybe you know somebody I don’t. I don’t know.”
Let’s see if Marvel does go forward with the character. He could really work well with many of the Marvel characters so let’s hope that things work in favor of Blade.
