In Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s one superhero in particular whose appearance serves as a reminder of their foundational contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) being what it is today: Wesley Snipes’ Blade.
Snipes reprising his role as Blade in the new Deadpool flick almost 26 years after he made his debut as the character in New Line Cinema’s Blade (1998) is both a homecoming and a reminder of his underrated legacy as a key contributor to the superhero movie boom. As Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds reminded us, it was 1998’s Blade that spurred the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it today. As the media franchise has grown, those who’ve followed its trajectory are well aware of the many Marvel movies from multiple film production studios that came before it and played a part in its creation. And arguably none of them are as important as Blade.
Although not the first Marvel movie — that honor belongs to 1986’s woefully undercooked Howard The Duck — it was the first successful one.
It’s sort of surprising that Blade was a success, though. Superhero flicks weren’t wasn’t as prominent as they are now, and while iconic properties like Batman and Superman had been largely successful, there was no precedent for third-tier heroes making big box office profits. To be clear, Blade wasn’t a well-known superhero from Marvel’s roster. This, along with Blade being a Black character (most, if not all, comic book movies up until Blade — unless you count New Line Cinema’s antihero Spawn from 1997 — were centered around white superheroes) and the film being R-rated seemingly limited Blade’s prospects for success. It didn’t feel like it would work. It didn’t feel like it could.
But it did.
Blade debuted at No.1 at the box office before going on to gross $131.2 million worldwide on a $45 million budget. It spawned two sequels (Blade II and Blade: Trinity) that each at least doubled their budget at the box office. More importantly, the flick was a proof-of-concept for superhero flicks that could be both fantastical and grimly realistic. X-Men would follow in 2000, with Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy hitting soon after. By 2008, Marvel Studios, a branch that split off from Fox years beforehand, released Iron Man, setting the stage for the multi-billion dollar Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“We laid the foundation for something bigger than we even imagined,” Snipes said in a 2018 interview with Vice.
Blade didn’t just signal the potential Marvel could have in the movie industry; it also proved that Black superheroes deserved a place on the big screen. It’s fair to wonder if fans would have gotten a Black Panther film without Blade being released nearly 20 years prior.
As the Blade reboot continues to be in development hell, it remains to be seen when the character’s next film appearance will be. But, as Snipes has shown to the almost 14 million people who’ve seen Deadpool & Wolverine, he’s still more than capable of playing the brooding vampire killer who put Marvel on the path to multiversal success.
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