Wesley Snipes Teases The Return of Blade!

If there’s one thing the whole world can agree on, it’s that we’re currently living in a golden age of comic book movies. After taking a near-fatal nose dive in the late nineties, the superhero genre is now stronger than ever, with no small amount of credit due to 1998’s “Blade”, which recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary. With the film rights to the character now back with Marvel, fans have long been clamouring to see Blade make his debut within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a recent interview with VICE, Wesley Snipes himself teased some behind-the-scenes developments on the long-awaited return of Marvel’s resident vampire hunter.

In his interview with VICE, Snipes shared some behind the scenes information on Blade’s return, and his involvement with the project’s development: “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.”

While Snipes’ comments are the first significant bit of information regarding Blade’s future, he also indicated that talks with Marvel regarding the character’s return have actually been going on for longer than fans may realize. “All the main execs at Marvel and my team, we’ve been discussing [it] 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.”

Snipes would also further indicate that the next incarnation of Blade may be considerably darker than his previous portrayal of the character. “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.”

With superhero movies all but on life support following the double-whammy of comic book camp that was “Batman and Robin” and “Steel” in 1997, “Blade” truly came out of nowhere when it hit theatres on August 21st, 1998. At the time, it was a B-level character at best, and also completely unknown to all but the most well-versed comic book readers, or those (like yours truly) who caught the character’s appearances in a handful of episodes of the “Spider-Man” animated series in the mid-nineties. With a blend of state-of-the-art special effects, a little rejiggering of the character’s backstory, and by far the best fight sequences of their time in the superhero genre, “Blade” was just the shot in the arm that the comic book genre desperately needed at the time, paving the way for 2000’s “X-Men” and 2002’s “Spider-Man” as well as launching the character into his own franchise.

More recently, 2016’s “Deadpool” and last year’s “Logan” have launched a new comic book craze of R-rated superhero adventures, something that “Blade” was over a decade ahead of its time on. Snipes’ comments on an even darker take on Blade will no doubt come as very welcome news to fans of the character, and the aforementioned R-rated superhero bloodbaths. Where Blade will ultimately make his return is still the subject of much speculation, with the idea of Blade jumping onto Netflix (where Marvel has launched a half-dozen series featuring much more mature content) being among the most popular theories. In any case, Snipes’ comments may mean that Blade’s preparing to pick up his sword and go on the hunt once again in the near future.

Stay tuned for more info on the return of Blade as it comes into the light! Meantime – what are your thoughts on Wesley Snipes’ comments on Blade’s return, excited to see Blade fight sharper and get even darker than before? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram. (Hunt down our FUniverse of martial arts movie news, along with our reviews of “Blade” and ” Blade II“, and our interview with the latter’s assistant fight choreographer, John Salvitti!)