During theMarvel Studiospresentation at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Kevin Feige announced aBladereboot was being developed as part of the company’s line-up of future feature films. The title role will be portrayed by two-timeAcademy Award winnerMahershala Ali, who recently revealed Marvel originally planned to produce aBladeseries before he became involved in the project.
Wesley Snipes portrayed Blade in a series of films from New Line Cinema, the first of which is often credited with paving the way for the current run of superhero blockbusters, along with Sam Raimi’sSpider-Manand Bryan Singer’sX-Men. After the rights to the character reverted to Marvel in 2012,Snipes allegedly discussed plans to reprise the rolewith executives at the company. While Marvel Studios ultimately opted to introduce a new incarnation of the vampire hunter to the MCU, Snipes expressed his support for the project shortly after Ali’s casting was announced.
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During an interview on The Tight Rope podcast, Ali revealed that he first inquired aboutMarvel’s plans for Bladeafter completing work on Netflix’sLuke Cage. “So, in doing that show, the day it premiered I had turned to my agent and I had said, ‘What are they doing with “Blade?"’ Because I kept hearing that they were trying to find a way to remake it and put it back together, and it was exciting for me to get to be in that Marvel space in TV, but for me, my goal had always been film,” he explained. “So, there was this long process of them speaking about, at least in the television division, really wanted to make it a TV show again, but not necessarily, trying to acquire the rights still, and some thing’s kinda going on, so it took a couple of years.” Ali added that his interest in the role was partly because of his admiration for Snipes, saying, “For me, I just felt like since they were having conversations about bringing it back into being, I just wanted to be considered for it because I had definitely a connection, at least in my mind, to Wesley Snipes going way back to high school when people used to joke and say we looked alike, and all this stuff.”
In the comics, Blade is traditionally depicted as ahuman-vampire hybridwho has mastered his combat skills for the purpose of ridding the world of evil vampires. His life-long mission is motived by the death of his mother, who was murdered by a vampire during his birth. This relatively darker story for a Marvel comics hero was also of interest to Ali, who said, “I love that it’s darker, that’s all in terms of tone, he’s a little bit darker than some of the other ones, and so that element was attractive to me.”
While it may be confusing for some to see Ali portray two different characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it will not be the first instance of an actor taking on more than one role in the franchise. Alfre Woodard portrayed Mariah Stokes opposite Ali inLuke Cageafter previously appearing inCaptain America: Civil Waras a grieving mother and Gemma Chan will follow her role as Minn-Erva inCaptain Marvelby playingSersi inEternals.
Marvel Studios’Bladewas slated to be part of the company’s phase 5 line-up, although it remains unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the project. The studio has alreadyshifted its release schedule on multiple occasionsdue to the delays caused by the health crisis.
