It was going to happen sooner or later, so it may as well have happened now. When new actors take on the torch of superheroes that were already played by other actors, it’s apparently law that the veteran actor will have to speak on the matter. Mahershala Ali is going to be playing Blade in a few years, and so that means that Wesley Snipes must give some sort of verbal blessing for us all to see, lest Ali reject the role out of shame.
Recently, Snipes was asked about his thoughts on the recasting, and he rather plainly stated that he supports the casting and that’s all there is to it. “The issue of him being cast wasn’t between us,” Snipes said, “I don’t walk around as Blade, so I’m not attached to the character like that.” Even further, he added that there’s no “emotional loss” in not playing the Daywalker again, with the only advice to be that Ali should be to avoid getting hurt and “enjoy it while it lasts.” (“Look cool” was not said, because Ali already looks cool pretty much all the time.)
Snipes has been the only actor to play Blade in the films, though in the short-lived Blade series for SpikeTV, he was played by Kirk “Sticky” Jones. Since he’s yet to have been endlessly rebooted like Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four and hasn’t really been in long form cinematic narratives like most of the Avengers, nobody really knows what to expect from this new version other than he’ll be killing vampires. That, and also eventually cross paths with whoever counts as an Avenger these days.
Whenever the new Blade gets to release, it’ll be have more freedom to play with the somewhat loose canon the character has had in comics over the decades. Maybe some of that will involve a cameo for Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, and whoever else is willing to show up...which probably also includes Ryan Reynolds.
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