Deadpool & Wolverine has featured several exciting cameos, but the most surprising is seeing Wesley Snipes reprising his role as Blade after over two decades. Despite his alleged feud with Ryan Reynolds on the set of David S. Goyer’s 2004 Blade: Trinity, the two unexpectedly worked together and exchanged meta-jokes, referencing their dispute. As they seem to have buried the hatchet, Reynolds shows nothing but respect for Snipes for kickstarting the superhero movie series with his Blade trilogy and wants him to have a Logan-like send-off akin to James Mangold’s 2017 Logan.
In a post on X, Reynolds honors Snipes and his contribution to the superhero cinematic universes, like the Fox-Marvel universe and Marvel Cinematic Universe fans know today. Starting with Stephen Norrington’s 1998 Blade, the now-62-year-old star brought the human-vampire hybrid Eric Brooks to life, giving Marvel its first hit movie. However, after the release of Trinity in 2004, the vampire hunter was gone in the shadows until he appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“There is no Fox Marvel Universe or MCU without Blade first creating a market,” Reynolds captioned his snaps with Snipes on the threequel’s set. “He’s Marvel Daddy. Please retweet for a Logan-like send-off.”
As of this writing, the tweet has about 100,000 retweets, 410,000 likes, and 3,600 comments. This proves the renewed interest in Snipes’ Blade 23 years after his last movie. With his return, the actor-martial artist also broke two Guinness World Records, making him the only actor to hold the longest career as a live-action Marvel character after his first Blade movie and surpassing Hugh Jackman himself, whose first outing as Wolverine was in Bryan Singer’s 2000 X-Men.
Also, he now holds the record for the longest gap between character appearances in Marvel films. The title was previously held by Alfred Molina, who appeared as Doctor Octopus in Jon Watts’ 2021 Spider-Man: No Way Home after his last appearance in Sam Raimi’s 2004 Spider-Man 2.
Wesley Snipes Never Thought Blade Would Possibly Return in Deadpool & Wolverine
Blade appears as a part of the Resistance, composed of himself, Elektra (Jennifer Garner), X-23 (Dafne Keen), Gambit (Channing Tatum), and Johnny Storm / Human Torch (Chris Evans), who worked together against the villain Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin). Blade didn’t just have a simple cameo but played a supporting role as these forgotten heroes helped Deadpool and Wolverine fight off the main villain and her army. As no one saw it coming, Snipes himself never thought his character would return in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“Over the years, we've had very interesting conversations, some of them very substantive and some of them not,” he said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly during San Diego Comic-Con 2024. “So, I kind of resided that I was moving on from them, which is okay.”
Snipes found comfort in knowing he did three Blade movies, which all turned out pretty well. Hence, he moved on from his iconic character and started doing other “bigger and better things.” However, everything changed when he received a text message from Reynolds, who co-produced and co-wrote the third Deadpool film.
“I did not think it was possible,” he continued. “I didn't think we would be able to pull it off.”
Knowing that Marvel Studios and Disney were developing a new Blade movie with Mahershala Ali in the lead, Snipes was convinced that these two studios were not interested in having him back. But when Reynolds called him out of the blue, told him the idea, and informed him that the studios agreed and the project was a go, he was all in.
“'If you're in, we're in.' Here we are,” he added.
After being announced in 2019, Marvel Studios’ Blade has been in development hell. Its production and release have been pushed back several times, with writers and directors coming and going. With that, there are calls to scrap the reboot and have Snipes return to do his final Blade movie.
If this happens, the Daywalker can have his final adventure and an emotional send-off like Logan’s 2017 film. This can even help start Ali’s take on the role as Blade may formally pass the baton to him. However, as Snipes says in Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s only one Blade.
