I think many of us can agree that Blade has been sitting on the bench for far too long. Not only did the vampire hunter prove that R-rated comic book movies could earn serious dough at the box office, but he also managed to beat the likes of X-Men and Spider-Man to the punch when it came to big screen Marvel adaptations that could be taken seriously.
But after Blade: Trinity debuted to mixed reactions back in 2004, the character has yet to headline any other cinematic outings, instead being relegated to television, first in a live action series on Spike that folded after only one season and then in an anime on G4. Although the latter seemed to resonate more with fans, there are those of us who are eagerly awaiting a film franchise reboot.
Another person who seems to be in the same boat is Anthony Mackie, whom followers of the genre likely know best as Sam Wilson/The Falcon from the Captain America movies. According to Screen Geek, however, he apparently has his eye on another character, as he recently stated the following:
“I pretty much want to grow up to be Wesley Snipes. If we can bring back Blade, I’d definitely be Blade in every Blade movie.”
As much as I admire Mackie’s enthusiasm, there’s pretty much no way this can come to fruition given that Marvel Studios now owns the cinematic rights to Blade. Had he still been at New Line Cinema, this absolutely could’ve happened, but we’ll likely have to wait for the character to pop up on a Netflix series or some other Marvel related show as Kevin Feige hinted at in the past. It’s a shame, really, but it is what it is.