Now that Wesley Snipes has done his time and is a free man again, he’s letting the world know that he’s ready to put the leather back on and get back to work as arguably his most recognizable trademark character: Blade. Snipes sat down with MTV at Comicon and talks about “getting to do some things now that I couldn’t do then” and that he’d “love to put on the suit again.” He also makes his case/plea for having more black super heroes in the world. (Diversification of heroes is apparently a thing now, so you never know!)
Blade and it’s sequels were arguably just a little ahead of their time. Right now is a phenomenal time for comic book based movies but still, the franchise was able to become a solid hit for New Line Cinemas through the years racking up some solid successes on a modest budget. The first 2 movies cost roughly 90 million to produce and Blade and Blade II ended up making a little over 300 million. The third film Blade: Trinity cost a little more to make at 65 million but still racked up 128 million total. The point is that if you take Snipes’ body of work, Blade has clearly been a solid run for him and it makes perfect sense that he’s talking about returning to it. I think Trinity is distinct in that it was a critical bomb. No critics I heard of at the time thought Trinity was good. It was one of the first of many box office bombings for Ryan Reynolds who seemed destined for greatness with his Hannibal King only to become a repeated let down (I’m looking at you, Green Lantern).
Perhaps if Snipes can talk Guillermo Del Toro, whose since become a sort of Crown Prince of Geekdom with Hellboy, Pacific Rim, and Pan’s Labyrinth, to return to the Daywalker as well, then studios will be more inclined to resurrect Blade from the grave. Of course that brings into question another aspect that has changed in the last decade and that is who will produce the flick should it come back. Blade is of course a Marvel property which goes through Disney, but New Line is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers who did the first 3 films. Could this mean a sort of reboot but done as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? There is a lot of room for speculation there as Blade was one of very few mildly successful R-rated movies featuring Marvel characters and with Disney involved, odds are heavily against production of an R-rated flick under the Disney umbrella so letting WB have it might play out better than you think. Meanwhile, while we wait for news on Blade, you can catch Snipes in The Expendables 3 coming soon to theaters.
Excuse my squee, though, as I dream of a Midnight Sons movie event (Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Morbius, Blade)! o.O
Last Updated on November 28, 2018.
