While Marvel fans everywhere are speculating on how to bring the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU following the Fox-Disney merger, there’s another beloved hero out there who’s been in the Marvel Studios toy box for years that a lot of us have long fantasized about entering the fray once more. The man in question is, of course, Eric Brooks – better known to most people as Blade.
While the vampire hunter hasn’t been seen in theaters since 2004’s less-than-beloved Blade: Trinity, there’s now a renewed interest in the property after Wesley Snipes made headlines back in the summer after revealing that he may be returning to the role of everyone’s favorite Daywalker in the not-so-distant future, which opens up all sorts of possibilities for Blade – including a place in the MCU.
That’s the glass-half-full scenario, of course, but even if that doesn’t pan out, the character could always be placed on Netflix alongside other series such as Daredevil and The Punisher. And if that does indeed happen, Marc Guggenheim has some great ideas for how Marvel could go about constructing a show for Blade.
As the architect behind The CW’s Arrowverse, Guggenheim certainly knows a thing or two about quality television, and here’s what he envisions for Mr. Brooks:
“I was very enamored with what I did on the Blade run I did with Howard Chaykin, and not because I did it, but because I approach everything as a fan first and I really write what I want to see,” Guggenheim shared with The Marvelists podcast. “What I would love to see, quite frankly, is a Blade live-action series that did what we did where you were telling a present day story, but you were also, kind of a la Arrow, ironically, flashing back to the origins of Blade because I think there’s something very interesting about the idea of Blade’s childhood and Blade growing up and maturing and becoming a vampire hunter. I think doing that, juxtaposed with the present day story would be really cool.”
Sure, Arrow‘s a bit of a darker show when compared to what we typically see from a company like Marvel Studios, whose meteoric success is typically found in four-quadrant family films like Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp. But there are signs of a changing tide.
The aforementioned Disney-Fox merger will herald the moment when the Merc with a Mouth returns home to Marvel, while there’s also been chatter of a potential R-rated outing being added to the MCU at some point in the future.
Could Blade be the one to break new ground for Marvel Studios? We sure hope so, as it’s been far too long since Wesley Snipes was on our screens kicking ass and taking names. Or, as Pom Klementieff’s Mantis would say, taking ass and kicking names…
