Wesley Snipes’s Return as Blade Is Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Best Moment

The following story contains spoilers for Deadp0ol & Wolverine.

GIVEN DEADPOOL’S TENDENCY to break the fourth wall—speaking directly to the audience about any and everything happening around him, acknowledging that he is, in fact, a character in a comic book/movie—and the fact that Deadpool & Wolverine marked the character’s first appearance under the Disney/Marvel Cinematic Universe umbrella following two previous appearances managed by 20th Century Fox, it makes sense that the film would make a number of meta- jokes about the situation. It also made for a good excuse to feature a number of exciting and, in some ways, unexpected characters within the film.

Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and Channing Tatum as Gambit were three characters who it was a delight to see, but, for as surprising as it was to seem them return to the screen and realized in live-action for the first time, their appearances at least would’ve been in the realm of possibility for anyone placing bets and making predictions before seeing the movie. One character in the movie, however, came as a much bigger surprise: Wesley Snipes as Blade.

1998’s Blade marked the very first live-action Marvel film, and its success (it made $131 million on a $45 million budget) not only spurred two sequels, but served as a launching pad for the decades of comic book adaptations that would follow. In a way, if Blade didn’t hit, the MCU probably wouldn’t have ever happened. (You can read about this incredibly interesting chapter in Marvel’s history in last year’s wonderful MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios book)

But Snipes hasn’t appeared as the titular Daywalker—a half-vampire who hunts vampires himself—since 2004’s doomed Blade: Trinity. And in the time since, there’s been a Blade TV show, and a long-gestating MCU reboot planned to star Mahershala Ali that has struggled to get off the ground. For fans following along, it seemed like the character of Blade was stuck in as much purgatory as any struggling-but-beloved character in the last several years. I mean, hey, at least The Fantastic Four have gotten a couple do-overs!

Which is what made Blade’s appearance in The Void, in Deadpool & Wolverine, so exciting. Snipes’s entrance into the film was fully unexpected, but even at age 61, its clear that he’s still got the swagger and coolness that made him so iconic in the role (and at one point one of the biggest movie stars on the planet). We’re probably never going to get any kind of “Old Man Blade” project—let’s let the MCU focus on Mahershala’s movie first—but it was an absolute delight to check in with this original version of the character.

All that being said, there were more reasons than just time that made Snipes’s appearance as Blade unlikely—one of which was the rumor that he really hated Ryan Reynolds when the two worked together on Blade: Trinity.

Stream Blade Here

Stream Blade II Here

Stream Blade: Trinity Here

Did Wesley Snipes and Ryan Reynolds have beef on Blade: Trinity?

After the success of Blade and 2002’s Blade II, New Line Cinema tried to cash in on Snipes’s vampire hunter a third time to disastrous results; Blade Trinity still made some money ($132 million at the box office on a $65 million budget), but it was a major critical failure (only 24% on Rotten Tomatoes) and arrived with all sorts of rumors of behind the scenes turmoil.

One of those rumors involved Snipes and the man who would 20 years later become his costar again, Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds played Blade’s fellow vampire hunter Hannibal King, and the whispers were that Snipes did not like him, calling him names and criticizing him for not knowing his lines. Comedian Patton Oswalt has also shared some rather wild stories about the making of Trinity.

Deadpool & Wolverine plays into these rumors, as one of the first thing Blade says upon meeting Deadpool is “I don’t like you.” Deadpool quickly responds by saying “Never did,” referring to Snipes’s and Reynolds’s rumored feud.

However, Reynolds introduced Snipes as his friend at a special Deadpool & Wolverine panel during San Diego Comic Con 2024. Perhaps this was a long-running bit? Seems to be the case…

Wesley Snipes answered Ryan Reynolds’s call to return as Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine

In the time since Deadpool & Wolverine has been released, Snipes has shared the story about his return to the character of Blade, how it happened—and whether his feud with Ryan Reynolds was ever real or not.

“It started with a text from Ryan Reynolds. I saw a text that said ‘I want to talk to you.’ And I was like, ‘I hate this guy,'” he said in a video interview with EW, with a laugh. “You know, this is a joke. We’ve been playing this for like two decades. We’ve actually liked each other the whole time!”

Snipes continued the story, saying that Reynolds told him his idea to bring Blade back, and that he told him that if Marvel was on board, he would be too. “I did not think it was possible,” he said. “I did not think he would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think Marvel was into it, that Disney was into it, and also because they had Mahershala cast for the next upcoming version of it. It didn’t make sense to me!”

Obviously, Marvel and Disney were on board—and the 20-years-in-the-waiting appearance came to be in Deadpool & Wolverine. Now, hopefully we just won’t have to wait 20 years before we see Blade on the big screen—and hopefully Mahershala Ali’s new version—again.