Although Blade has been part of Marvel Comics lore since 1973, it was Wesley Snipes’ time as Eric Brooks that propelled the character to new heights of popularity. Snipes portrayed the vampire hunter across three movies from 1998 to 2004, and soon Blade will enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon, this time played by Green Book and Alita: Battle Angel’s Mahershala Ali. But in an age where actors from older franchises frequently cameo in reboots/remakes/reimaginings, Snipes has teased to the Daywalker fanbase that he might be interested in popping up in the next Blade movie.
In addition to reaffirming his support for Mahershala Ali taking over as Blade, Wesley Snipes responded thusly when ET asked him if he would be willing to participate in the Blade reboot, whether through a cameo or a larger role as a different character:
You never know. Under the right circumstances, I'm open to play with everybody. I know that people associate me with that role. The Daywalker community out there is a part of the Daywalker clique and our global community identifies with a little bit of that world and the new definition of Daywalkers, these global hyphenated multitalented individuals capable doing more things at one time -- skill masters, as we call them. So, we gon' keep going, we gon' keep bringing.
To be clear, Wesley Snipes hasn’t been approached about appearing in the Blade reboot, but if someone from Marvel Studios were to call him up, it sounds like he’s open to being involved. Certainly plenty of fans would like this to happen, as evidenced by the tweets posted after the Blade reboot was officially announced at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. On the other hand, with Mahershala Ali taking over Blade duties, it’s possible Kevin Feige and the other MCU bigwigs might find Snipes popping up in the reboot, even if it’s just briefly, too distracting when the attention should be squarely focused on the new guy slicing up vampires.
Regardless, with the Blade reboot still years away, it’ll likely be a long time before we learn whether or not Wesley Snipes will be involved in the project. In the meantime, the actor can next be seen in Coming to America 2, where he plays General Izzi, the main antagonist. And as a fun side note, two years ago, Snipes appeared on the FX series What We Do in the Shadows as Wesley, who shared an awful lot in common with Blade; funny how that worked out.
Blade will mark Mahershala Ali’s fourth comic book media project, having previously appeared in Netflix’s Luke Cage, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Amazon’s Invincible. Rather than Marvel Studios already having Blade in development when Ali came aboard, the actor actually pitched the reboot when he met with Kevin Feige after winning an Academy Award for his performance as Don Shirley in Green Book. Ali had a deep connection to the character, and whatever he specifically said at the meeting piqued Feige’s interest, with Blade now being part of the MCU film slate.
Earlier this month, the Blade reboot took a big step forward by hiring Watchmen’s Stacy Osei-Kuffour to write the screenplay. However, there’s no word yet on who’s being looked at to direct, let alone any news about the rest of the cast. It hasn’t even been confirmed yet if Blade will operate within the MCU’s traditional MCU PG-13 parameters or if it will be able to follow in the original Blade trilogy’s R-rated footsteps, just like Deadpool 3 is getting to do.
In other words, a lot of about the Blade reboot is still shrouded in mystery, so naturally you want to keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more updates on its progress. You’re welcome to learn what else is coming on the film side of the MCU franchise by scanning through our Marvel movies guide.
