Well, to the surprise of no one, the Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali, is dead.
When Marvel boss Kevin Feige said a few weeks back that “I Feel Like a Gigantic Loser and Failure That We Didn’t Get Off the Ground With Mahershala Ali,” I think it was pretty clear that there was no real hope for Blade in the MCU. Or at least not for the foreseeable.
In a new interview promoting his new movie, Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother, Ali spoke about the Blade project at Marvel and how he felt Marvel/Disney never really wanted to make the movie, forcing him to walk.
Wesley Snipes says he’s still talking to Marvel about bringing Blade back…
“When I look at what is for me, is it was either this [Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother] or that [waiting for Blade]— and I’ll take this.” the actor told GQ Magazine.
Going on, he revealed that he felt Disney was never really committed to Blade and that was no longer worth waiting for: “No offense to them. I’ve been doing this professionally for pushing 30 years now, and one thing I’ve learned is that what is for you is for you and what is not is not. For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on.”
He makes a valid point. Blade is a great character but what the fans really want is to see Blade being cool and cutting up vampires, but even that was too complicated for Marvel, it seems. He added: “Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie.”
Could Blade be coming to the MCU… and bringing his daughter?
You may recall, link above, that in 2018 Wesley Snipes said that he was in talks with Marvel to return to the iconic role. You may also recall that the rumour mill had it that Blade was to make way for his daughter in the MCU and to step into a mentor role similar to Whistler (Kris Kristopherson) in the Blade movies. And this was to be a trilogy.
But Snipes wasn’t playing ball, insisting that HE is Blade and he walked away from the project.
This all makes sense given that Ali, while he would have been great as Blade, is 52 now (Snipes is 64), so he’s also pretty old for a Blade franchise. So yes, the plan was to step Blade down to make way for his daughter in the MCU. Given that Ali wasn’t happy with the original script – it was too female-centric – leading to the already made costumes being sold to the Sinners movie.
It seems that Marvel has had a change of heart… hopefully that means they want to bring Blade back to the centre of his own story.
All I have to say is that Snipes, as proven in last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, can still play Blade and yes, as he said himself:
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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