Since Wesley Snipes finally got out of jail, he’s been talking about possibly returning to the BLADE franchise, which have been three of his highest grossing films of the past 20 years (BLADE II remains his highest domestic earner to date). His age, matched with the dismal reaction to the ill-fated, studio-tinkered BLADE: TRINITY, have made the notion seem somewhat unlikely, but there’s been a development that suggests an approach that would suitably incorporate Mr. Snipes into the series, albeit not quite front-and-center.
A comic by Tim Seely and Logan Faerber about Blade’s daughter, titled Blade The Hunter, was set to debut this October, but has been pushed back indefinitely. A rumor, originating at Bleeding Cool, suggests a reason for this: that Marvel, who has inherited the rights of the characters from New Line, wants to incorporate the character into their MCU, and want the comic series shaped accordingly. This lines up with Snipes’ repeated comments about having met with Feige and the Marvel guys to reprise his role.
The idea is that Daughter of Blade would be the focus of the film/franchise, with Snipes’ Blade lurking in the background providing tutelage in much the same way Kris Kristofferson’s Whistler did in the first three films (except, you know, with fangs).
Now, this is just a rumor, and the comic could have just as easily been delayed by a shortage of red ink or something, but it certainly gets the mind workin’, don’t it?
While this isn’t quite as sexy as the idea of Snipes (and, ideally, David Goyer) concluding the series as they originally intended, with a post-apocalyptic, vampire-run dystopia (which was obviously less commercial than a wisecracking Ryan Reynolds and an iPod-sporting Jessica Biel), I am still hoping there’s some veracity to this rumor. Despite a whole legion of Marvel characters appearing onscreen in the 17 years since the first (and, IMO, best) BLADE, he remains my personal favorite onscreen comic-book hero. Tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, yet somehow funny and steadfastly moral (unlike the often-grotesque PUNISHER), the tattoo-covered, sunglasses-wearing Daywalker always seemed way tougher, capable, and straight-up stylish than anything the MCU proper has yet to offer. I attribute a lot of that style (plus lines like, “Some motherfuckers always trying to iceskate uphill”) to Snipes’ unique, somewhat-bizarre personality (which Patton Oswalt has detailed several times); I don’t really have a lot of interest in seeing a younger actor take up the mantle, and I couldn’t even watch that Goyer-sponsored TV series because it wasn’t “the real BLADE”.
Plus, he managed to be a black leading man in a big-budget, financially successful comic book adaptation wayyyy before anyone had ever heard the names Miles Morales or Chadwick Boseman.
While my hope would be that they’d get someone worthy of taking up the mantle to play Blade’s daughter, that’s secondary to my excitement at the idea of getting Snipes back in the getup, katana in hand, in any capacity. But Marvel would absolutely have to be down to do it hard-R, take-no-shit, and with striking, bloodletting badassery on this level:
