Max Borg
On October 22, Disney made official what many had suspected was the case for a long time prior to the announcement: Marvel Studios’ Blade, scheduled for November 7, 2025, was no longer on the release calendar, having been indefinitely delayed as a result of multiple production issues (at the time of the press release, the film had lost its second director, while the script was undergoing rewrites).
While such issues are far from uncommon when it comes to larger studio projects (just ask those who were attached to Batman and/or Superman films in the ‘90s and early 2000s), Marvel’s perceived infallibility – their policy is to not officially announce a movie or series unless it’s in sufficiently good shape behind the scenes – led to derision in online circles, with one comment making the rounds repeatedly: how hard can it be to make a movie about a guy who kills vampires?
Some even suggested the studio should shelve this version, set to star Mahershala Ali (who so far has only appeared in an uncredited voice-only cameo in the Eternals post-credits scene), and just bring back Wesley Snipes, who played the Daywalker three times between 1998 and 2004 and reprised the role in this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, complete with in-joke about there being “only one Blade.” But it’s not like his time as the character was smooth sailing either. Quite the opposite, at times.
Snipes first played the half-human, half-vampire superhero in 1998’s Blade, written by David S. Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. His adversary in that film is Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), who intends to perform a ritual that will summon the “blood god” La Magra and give him the power to subjugate humanity for good. In the end, Blade defeats him, after a protracted swordfight, using an anticoagulant that causes vampires to explode when it enters their bloodstream.
This, however, was not what Goyer had originally written. The third act initially revolved around Frost actually transforming into La Magra, his physical presence replaced by a swirling mass of CGI blood for the remainder of the movie. Test audiences hated the scene, not least because the visual effects looked subpar (if you have the DVD, you can check for yourself via the bonus features), and the film’s release date was postponed by about half a year, from early 1998 to the end of the summer, so the climax could be retooled. The filmmakers also tightened the story somewhat, with the final cut coming in 20 minutes shorter than the test version (one deleted scene, about how vampires would survive if there were no humans left, was repurposed for the third movie).
2002’s Blade II, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was – by all accounts – a much smoother endeavor, and the Mexican filmmaker remained involved with Blade: Trinity as a production consultant, while relinquishing the director’s chair to focus on Hellboy. In the end, the job ended up in Goyer’s hands, causing a rift in his relationship with Snipes.
Exactly what happened depends on who you ask (Snipes has denied the veracity of the stories told by Patton Oswalt , who had a small role in the film), but the gist of it is, apparently, that the star got so uncooperative and reluctant to show up for work that Goyer – who reiterated in 2021 that their friendship is a thing of the past – had to use stand-ins for multiple scenes. Snipes has also conceded he didn’t get along with Ryan Reynolds, who played vampire hunter Hannibal King (basically a feature-length screen test for his take on Deadpool), and buried the hatchet when they reunited on a different Marvel set last year.
And while there was no extensive retooling in post-production like in 1998, the ending did go through multiple iterations, with at least three versions filmed and the most nonsensical one making its way into the theatrical cut (the unrated home release is generally regarded as having the better conclusion, one that allows the trilogy to come full circle when it comes to Blade’s dual nature).
As for the current reboot, the main problem appears to be that Marvel put the cart before the horse, announcing the movie in 2019 without any real idea besides the casting of Ali, whose desire to play the character led to the project receiving the go-ahead. But at least everyone was on the same page as to how Blade should be portrayed: it’s unlikely we’ll ever witness a revival of the nightmare scenario shared by Goyer in 2018, with the revelation that at the time of the first movie, studio execs did suggest perhaps the famously African-American hero should be re-envisioned as white…
