Wesley Snipes Discusses Blade’s Return in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’

New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which is now playing in theaters

Wesley Snipes recently shared his experiences with Entertainment Weekly about reprising his role as Blade in the movie “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Snipes’ appearance is one of many celebrity cameos in the film. To the delight of Marvel fans, he also made a surprise appearance at Comic-Con along with other actors featured in the movie.

“Over the years, we’ve had very interesting conversations, some of them very substantive and some of them not,” Snipes told EW about revisiting Blade for a fourth time. “So I kind of resided that I was moving on from them, which is okay. I did three of them, and I thought they turned out pretty good. Not so bad… So we move on to other things and bigger and better things, as well,” he added.

Snipes first portrayed Blade in the 1998 film of the same name and continued his role in 2002’s “Blade II” and 2004’s “Blade: Trinity.” The latter film co-starred Ryan Reynolds, who played a significant role in roping Snipes back into the Marvel world. Reynolds, now substantially more famous as Deadpool, reached out to Snipes via text, simply saying, “I want to talk to you.”

“I did not think it was possible,” Snipes remarked about his Blade comeback after two decades. “I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think that Marvel was into it, Disney was into it — also because they had Mahershala [Ali] cast for the next upcoming version of it… I thought it didn’t make sense to me, but [when] you get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue after 20 years, you go, ‘Okay, I got to take this call. Let’s see what this is about.’ He told me the idea…They said ‘yes’ and ‘it’s a go.’ ‘If you’re in, we’re in.’ Here we are.”

Marvel has been developing a new “Blade” reboot starring Mahershala Ali for several years, though it has encountered numerous bumps along the way. Just this past June, it was announced that director Yann Demange was leaving the project, and a new screenwriter, Eric Pearson, was joining. Snipes humorously referenced the turmoil on social media: “Blade, lordylordylordy. Folks still lookin for the secret sauce, ridin snowmobiles in traffic, kinda rough. Daywalkers make it look easy, don’t they?”

Marvel had first announced the new “Blade” movie with Ali in July 2019. The initial director, Bassam Tariq, exited in September 2022, and there has been a revolving door of writers, including “Watchmen” scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour and Michael Starrbury. Variety reported in November that the script had gone through at least five writers, with the narrative evolving into a story led by women and filled with life lessons. Speculation also suggested the film’s budget might be less than $100 million.

Despite the challenges surrounding Ali’s “Blade,” it did not deter Snipes from returning in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

“I wasn’t Blade ready, man. I don’t walk around as Blade every day, you know what I mean?” Snipes told EW about portraying the character again. “With a trench coat and shades and fangs in my mouth. We had to work out. We definitely had to get the body, and my biggest concern was being in condition enough to deal with whatever the action was. They didn’t really tell me what the action was going to be, so I prepared for whatever that was going to come. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do as much as I thought I would because the action movies are tough. They’re not easy at all by any means. About a month into it, I got the body right… and then, with the help of a little customized foam well placed in certain areas, it was all good to go, baby. Let’s ride!”

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters nationwide.