Marvel Studios Blade Mahershala Ali is Blade
 

The superhero movies today can be traced back to X-Men and Spider-Man. But there’s another film that exists in an odd middle-ground between campy superhero and something more gritty and realistic, which is 1998’s Blade. The story of a black half-human, half-vampire who hunts vamps and can survive daylight spawned a trilogy with 2002’s vastly superior Blade II and the pretty atrocious 2004 Blade: Trinity. Wesley Snipes starred in all three films, but when interest died off, Marvel relaunched the character on TV with Blade: The Series in 2006 starring Sticky Fingaz. That only lasted for one season. Then the rights eventually reverted back to Marvel Studios, and the character has been in limbo…until now.
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Image via HBO

After a slew of other announcements at their Comic-Con panel in Hall H, Marvel had a brief coda by announcing a new Blade and bringing two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali onto the stage. So we’ve got a new “Daywalker” and it’s the immensely talented Ali in the role.

What’s so cool about Blade getting into the MCU is not only have we seen that you can do some fun stuff with the character and his action-horror world (although I doubt Marvel’s Blade will be rated-R like the previous films), but that the studio is showing they can have more than one black superhero. Rather than just resting on the Black Panther franchise and calling it a day, they’re bringing more black superheroes into the MCU to stand alongside T’Challa, Sam Wilson, Valkyrie, and more. It’s one thing to say you’re going to make a commitment to diversity, but Marvel is out here doing it.

The question now becomes what will they do with Blade and whom will they get to oversee it? Who’s the right director for the franchise? How do you relaunch this character and make him fit in the MCU? These are exciting questions, and I’m eager to find out the answers in a few years when Blade arrives.

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Good news with a great lead cast. Hope the film's got teeth, though. The old one is very 2000's & has some crappy CGI, but otherwise holds up pretty good. Dark, violent, good action, & of course, Snipes. I'm hella down for this as long as it doesn't stray too far from the path.

But...Cottonmouth in Luke Cage?

Great casting choice. He was awesome in Luke Cage.

Agreed about him being an awesome choice, but what does this mean about the linkage between the Netflix series and the MCU Proper?

Probably the same thing that Alfre Woodard playing two different characters in Luke Cage and Civil War does.

Im disappointed they didnt bring Wesley Snipes back.

I'm fairly interested in this. Haven't seen the former Blade movies in a while now but I liked them when I saw them, might do a re-watch.

Declare the Netflix shows non-canon.

... What? Did you really think they would never do Daredevil, Kingpin or the Hand in the movies?

I wouldn't rule that out at all. A lot of things point to Snipes still being involved, this being only a soft reboot of Blade, and Blade becoming a legacy character.

Ali is a badass. Didn't care about Blade before, but I'm definitely interested now!

They should cast Wesley Snipes as Whistler.

there's essentially zero linkage between the MCU and the Netflix shows

With Disney going full steam into new shows on their service, I'm guessing the Netflix shows will be declared non-canon any day now.

Excited for this project. Don't know a lot about the character (still need to get around to seeing the trilogy) but I'm a big fan of Mahershala Ali.

What I wonder though, is this movie actually going to have excessive amounts of blood?

Of course it should, but it's probably gonna be PG13. Still, Endgame did have that one rather bloody scene where Clint killed some criminals. Could they somehow make it both PG13 and bloody enough to appease everyone?

I've read some theories that this could be a slightly separate branch of the MCU with a darker tone, hence why this was announced outside of the "phase 4" diagram. I doubt Disney would go that route, but I'd be glad to see something like that open the doors to different types of stories in the MCU. (ex. reboot Daredevil as a movie with the same cast)

It would be VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hard to even touch Snipes charisma, but OK.
Let's see what newcomer will bring to the table.

Something that always struck me as a bit weird about Blade is how the adaptations always depict him as an American (or of unknown nationality but with an American accent). I would say it's because of Wesley Snipes but he even had an American accent in the 90's Spider-Man cartoon, in which his first episode aired two years before the movie even came out.

Netflix shows were never canon.