Before the X-Men and Spider-Man films, and long before the MCU, there was Blade. The 1998 Marvel comic adaptation was one of the most significant steps in the superhero boom that defined the ‘00s blockbuster landscape – with Wesley Snipes playing the titular ‘Daywalker’, a half-vampire half-human night-stalker who takes out bloodsucking baddies with kung-fu moves. While Snipes’ trilogy ended with 2004’s Blade: Trinity – via the Guillermo del Toro-directed Blade II – the character is set to return in a new incarnation within the MCU, played by Mahershala Ali, who personally fought for the character’s return. And while Snipes isn’t involved in the reboot, he has come out in support of it.
Speaking to Uproxx, Snipes commented on the upcoming new take, saying: “I don’t have any involvement, but I support the young artists and I support Marvel in their business decisions. It’s a beautiful thing. I think he’s a heck of a job. He’s got a heck of a job on his hands.” While he won’t be returning to Blade, Snipes did tease some major projects of his own. “We have two things. We have one which is a female action franchise. And also what we call our Blade-killer, our Blade on steroids,” he explained, promising some next-level action. “We set our character in the world of shape-shifters and a little bit of time travel. But the action is going to be … Well, we did white belt action in Blade. Now we’re going to do black belt action.”
The star pointed out that things have come a long way since his original six-year stint as the vamp-hunting vigilante – which he plans to use to his advantage across both of his upcoming ideas. “We’re so much better than we were then,” he says. “And we’ve got more tools. Some of the things that were innovated in the Blade franchise in the first film are now standard in the Marvel universe and all of these other action movies. And the technology allows them to do a lot of things we couldn’t do then. Now give us the technology, and we’ve already got the skills and the flavour. It’s popping, baby!”
It’s currently unknown exactly when Ali’s Blade is due to arrive, but it’s still in development stages and hasn’t yet entered production – and since Marvel has dated its upcoming movie slate through the next couple of years, don’t expect it any sooner than 2023 at the earliest. Stacy Osei-Kuffour was recently appointed as a writer on the film, having previously worked on HBO’s Watchmen. Snipes, meanwhile, will be seen in Coming 2 America, the long-awaited Eddie Murphy sequel, which comes to Amazon Prime Video on 5 March.