Last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine was packed with special cameos, most of whom were tied to Fox’s X-Men franchise and other superhero movies the film studio, which is now merged with Disney, released back in the day. One of the exceptions, however, was Wesley Snipes reprising Blade, as the Daywalker’s movies from the late ‘90s and early 2000s hailed from New Line Cinema. David S. Goyer, who penned the Blade trilogy, recently admitted that he was confused by Snipes being in the MCU movie, but he did share an interesting theory about why it happened that’s tied to the long-awaited Blade reboot.
Goyer addressed this topic while appearing on Happy Sad Confused to talk about the 20th anniversary of Batman Begins, which he co-wrote. Towards the end of his conversation with host Josh Horowitz, he briefly talked about how he doesn’t understand why Marvel Studios is having such a hard time cracking Blade, especially with Mahershala Ali attached to play the vampire slayer. Then when Horowitz speculated about if the positive reception to Snipes’ appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine might have complicated development of the reboot even more, Goyer said:
I thought that was cool too, but it’s confusing if you’re trying to do another one. It may have been as just an acknowledgment that, ‘Yeah, we can’t crack it right now.’ I have no idea. I haven’t been involved in the conversations.
I don’t necessarily agree that it didn’t make sense for Wesley Snipes’ Blade to appear in Deadpool & Wolverine if Marvel is trying to introduce Mahershala Ali’s version. After all, Chris Evans reprised Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch, and we’ll soon meet Joseph Quinn’s version of that character in next month’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Besides, given how poorly Blade: Trinity was received, with David S. Goyer once calling it the “worst experience” of his career, I’d say Snipes deserve to reprise Eric Brooks and leave him in a better place than where he was left.
As for Goyer theorizing that Wesley Snipes was included in Deadpool & Wolverine as a way to indirectly acknowledge the Blade reboot’s troubles, I’d buy that as a possibility. It would certainly make Snipes saying, “There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever going to be one Blade” even funnier, as that line prompted Deadpool to knowingly look at the camera. In that sense, the Merc with the Mouth is silently confirming Snipes is correct, but the joke still works the other way if we get to meet Mahershala Ali’s Blade someday, thus proving his predecessor wrong.
The Blade reboot remains undated on the upcoming Marvel movies schedule, and development on it was reportedly paused in March. While we await any significant update on its status, remember that Deadpool & Wolverine can be revisited at your convenience with a Disney+ subscription.
