One popular character that Marvel has yet to use since they’ve gained the rights? Blade.
There could be a few reasons why they’ve elected not to bring back the character. Given the nature of the current films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an R-Rated character like Blade wouldn’t really fit into their plans. The character is universally known, thanks to the success of the Wesley Snipes lead films back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, but some honestly don’t even know that he’s a Marvel character.
You could also argue that it’d be better for them to give him his own series on something like Netflix, but they could be hesitant due to a failed series back in 2006 on Spike TV – that you probably all forgot about until I referenced it.
Back in October of last year, Kevin Feige gave a bit of an update on the character:
“They did ask a long time ago, and I think our answer was, ‘No, we’ll do something with Blade at some point.’ That’s still the answer. We think he’s a great character, a really fun character. You know, this movie [Doctor Strange] going into a different side of the universe has fun potential for him to pop up, and between the movies, the Netflix shows, the ABC shows, there’s so many opportunities for the characters to show up — as you’re all seeing now with Ghost Rider on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — that rather than team-up with other studios with that character, we’ll do something cool on our own. What that is and what that will be? We’ll see. There is nothing imminent to my knowledge… of course, he shows up in the next episode (laughs).”
And now, in a new interview with JoBlo, Feige has pretty much echoed those same statements:
“We think it would be cool. Someday. My tenure at Marvel started 17 years ago, and there were two things that sort of launched the modern era. One was X-Men, which was the first thing that people said, “Oh, there’s life here.” But a few years before that, there was Blade. A character nobody had heard of at all, had only appeared in a few issues of Tomb of Dracula or something, turned into a big franchise. That was always a great lesson for me, where you go, “It doesn’t matter how well known the character is, it matters how cool the movie is.” Which, many years later, would be the reason we do Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange. I think Blade is a legacy character now, and I think it would be fun to do something with him one day.”
Wesley Snipes has expressed interest in returning to the play the character as well – even going as far as saying that he and Marvel have actually talked about it:
“I can break the story right now. Marvel and I, Wesley Snipes, have decided to have further conversations about doing another ‘Blade.’ It’s a topic of conversation. You know, it’s inescapable. They have their agenda, we have ours, and we’re both moving at an accelerated pace to create magic, so we’ll see if it all matches up. There’s a strong possibility but, if not, we have another project that’s going to rock them that’ll stand toe-to-toe with Blade.”
He’s even mentioned the character potentially meeting The Avengers:
“I mean, I know it’s in the comic book. It would be interesting to see where they would place him and where he really would fit in. He’s got to bite somebody. I don’t know who he’s going to bite… Scarlett Johansson [laughs].”
So it appears they could be thinking about it potentially, but it probably won’t happen for a long time. If it does, however, one current MCU actor would be down to play the character, as Anthony Mackie said just that back in March:
“I pretty much want to grow up to be Wesley Snipes. If we can bring back Blade, I’d definitely be Blade in every Blade movie.”
Who knows? Maybe if Falcon dies, Marvel could bring the actor back. We’ll just have to wait and see.