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Wesley Snipes is Still ‘Very Much Open’ to Blade 4
Wesley Snipes is still interested in making Blade 4, but the ball is in Marvel’s court. Long before Marvel Studios began producing films in-house, Marvel Entertainment licensed out their characters to various studios with the hopes of getting at least some of them on the big screen. That’s what led to 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise and Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man series, not to mention New Line Cinema’s Blade series.
Based on the character of the same name, the Blade film series starred Snipes as the eponymous vampire hunter. Snipes made his debut appearance as the Marvel character in Stephen Norrington’s 1998 Blade movie, which saw widespread critical and commercial success. He reprised his role in Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II in 2002, which performed about the same – both critically and commercially – as the first film. David S. Goyer, who wrote the scripts for each movie, directed the third and final installment in the trilogy, Blade: Trinity, which released in 2004 and was widely panned by critics. However, it was still considered a box office success. Still, there wasn’t much interest on the studio’s side in a fourth film, Snipes hasn’t stopped expressing interest in continuing the series.
In an interview with THR, Wesley Snipes once again asserted his desire to reprise his role as Blade in a potential Blade 4, but he said he’s also open to appearing in other comic book roles as well.
“I am very much open to all of the possibilities. If Blade 4 comes along, that is a conversation we can have. And there are other characters in the Marvel universe that, if they want to invite me to play around with, I am with that too. I think the fans have a hunger for me to revision the Blade character, so that could limit where they could place me as another character in that universe.”
Even though a Blade 4 never happened, New Line attempted to develop a TV show in 2006 that continued the films’ story on the small screen. Goyer co-created Blade: The Series with current DC Films co-chief Geoff Johns. But despite initial interest in the project, it fell by the wayside and was canceled after one season on the air. And it wasn’t long after – in 2012 – that the rights to Blade eventually reverted back to Marvel Entertainment (which had been acquired by Disney by that point).
Although Blade is now back at Marvel, Kevin Feige has said there’s no plan to integrate Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and that, presumably, includes the MCU’s TV side – but it’s something he’d like to see happen eventually. If there is ever interest in reviving Blade, Snipes is certainly open to returning to the fold.
Source: THR
