Wesley Snipes Reflects on "Blade" and Its Influence on Marvel

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Spider-Man and the X-Men were just waiting for the technology to make them possible, they would have happened whether the Blade movies were made or not.

Or Hollywood could had chosen the tried and true historical/mythological epic formula.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Ha I wish Snipes and Del Toro could team up for Blade 4.

I like Snipes's acting and i wish studios would dare to give him a more risky original material.

[PretenderNX01]

When the Blade movie came out, Toy Biz made Blade action figures as they had the master license for Marvel. They were so rarely stocked in toy stores because there was so little fanfare for the movie then jumped in price on the secondary market after Blade broke the curse that Batman & Robin had set on superhero movies.

Yeah I don't really remember him doing a bunch of interviews for it, certainly there wasn't the hype machine behind it like they do today.

[Surtur]

Spider-Man and the X-Men were just waiting for the technology to make them possible, they would have happened whether the Blade movies were made or not.

This is kind of why I disagree with him saying Blade is responsible for this..since, eh, no, not to me. I think technology played a big role, as opposed to for some reason thinking "yeah no it was just the Blade movie". Since, meh, I wouldn't be surprised if you removed the Blade movie from existence and..we'd still more or less be where we are now with super hero stuff. I won't say Blade did not play a role, but would I give it a majority of the credit? Ehh..nope, but that is just me.

[CliffHanger2]

I like Snipes's acting and i wish studios would dare to give him a more risky original material.

He's very versatile as an actor, I don't think he'd have a problem finding different types of roles. But I still wouldn't find Blade 4, it could be a good jumping off point for Mighty Avengers.

[Crimson Knight]

Blade was so awesome. I feel every time I watch Blade 2, some of my enthusiasm for it diminishes due to some really shoddy looking CGI characters fighting. Snipes, on the other hand, was always magnetic in both movies. You could tell his enthusiasm for the character faded when they tried to shoe-horn in the Nightstalkers and Goyer is a really shitty director. A lot of visual flair and a charismatic lead saved a fairly average script for both movies.

I wonder if Marvel can even make a movie now and call it "Blade". It'll probably have to be something like "Marvel's Blade", since New Line Cinema probably owns the rights to the Blade film titles, even though the rights to the character has reverted back to Marvel.

If they do, simple call it Blade: Vampire Slayer, or Blade: Daywalker, or something like that.

[Cyke]

This is kind of why I disagree with him saying Blade is responsible for this..since, eh, no, not to me. I think technology played a big role, as opposed to for some reason thinking "yeah no it was just the Blade movie". Since, meh, I wouldn't be surprised if you removed the Blade movie from existence and..we'd still more or less be where we are now with super hero stuff. I won't say Blade did not play a role, but would I give it a majority of the credit? Ehh..nope, but that is just me.

Spider-Man would've been made eventually, but really Blade is the one that prompted Marvel and Avi Arad to imagine bigger. The rationale was essentially, "If this C-list hero can do this well critically and financially, imagine what we could do with our A-list brands?" X-Men came first not only because the cartoon and comics were a bigger hit, but also because they were under far less red tape than Spider-Man. And then the success of X-Men really motivated Marvel to clear up as much legal clutter as it could to finally proceed with their flagship character once and for all.

As well, Arad set a template of sorts for the current Marvel schedule. Ever since 2002 with Blade II and Spider-Man, he helped produce at least one Marvel movie per year up until Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk in 2008, the birth of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not all of them were winners of course, but it helped show that such a production output could be maintained -- compare that with the decade and half litigation mess that screwed the Spider-Man movie for so long until Raimi and Sony came along.

[PretenderNX01]

I think technology played a big role

I think people forget they made a Spider-Man TV movie and a series, back in 1977.
SpideyCast.jpg
Spiderman-at-Caltech.jpg

That's kind of like saying WB wanted to wait after Superman IV until the technology was available and that's why it took so long.
Emma Frost and Banshee also led the school in a Generation-X TV movie in 1996.

I don't think anybody was looking to do movies of properties they felt were only good for TV.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

Ha I wish Snipes and Del Toro could team up for Blade 4.

Yeah, that would be cool > even though the first film is still my favorite. I agree with the comments about Blade being a game changer as far as comic book movies. I still think Wesley is perfect in the role.

[Mister Mets]

It would be appropriate if he was cast as T'Challa's father in a Black Panther film. In some ways, he is the father of the MCU.

[Legato]

It would be appropriate if he was cast as T'Challa's father in a Black Panther film. In some ways, he is the father of the MCU.

I second this.

[Mormel]

Blade had an added appeal: the vampire theme. Vampires have been a staple of Western fiction for centuries, they're a recognizable antagonist for a great percentage of the movie-going audience. While Blade made use of characters that had been established in the comic books, the setting of the movie itself didn't need all that much exposition because most people are familiar (if you'll pardon the pun) with vampire mythos. Most people who were unaware of the character Blade going into the movie, probably didn't view him as a 'superhero' per se, just as a badass dude who was half vampire and hunted the real demons. To them, it was more generally an action movie with horror/fantasy undertones.

[Vibranium]

exactly...vampires have a built in audience so it definitely brought a lot of people in that wouldn't normally have been there

[Jabare]

Spider-Man and the X-Men were just waiting for the technology to make them possible, they would have happened whether the Blade movies were made or not.

track down some big wigs at 20th Century Fox, several had reservations about X-men. It's widely acknowledged Blade's success helped paved the road for these movies.

I think eventually Spider-Man gets made, if not 2002 than later. But who knows what would have happened than. I wouldn't go too far off in hypothetical land. The Blade movies were hits and served to change people's perspectives about superheroes and comics in hollywood. Really one of the first building blocks to the big budget superhero genre we have today

Studios can be notoriously stubborn and afraid to try new things without someone truly influential (rich) pushing a project forward. X-men was very much on the rocks.

Honestly, I'm a little concerned superhero films are going to fall into more cookie cutter type formulas. Will see what happens, hopefully we can get another film that takes what a studio will perceived as a "risk" to shake things up.

[DennisTheMenace]

You have to remember just how bad most of the comics book movies made in the
90's were.

You had the Captain America movie nobody wants to remember, a Fantastic Four movie that was even worse and Steel.

Indy dooks did fare bettler as The Mask and the Crow were well received. But a recognizable hero from the big 2other than Batman suceeding on screen?

Blade started that.

Barely anyone even knows these 2 movies exist. Captain America went straight to video and FF was never released in any format ever and was only made to retain rights to the characters. Sure they were bad, but they're not the best examples to use in your argument.