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In the newest episode of our IGN30 Icons Series, Blade 2 director Guillermo del Toro revealed why he believes Mahershala Ali’s Blade movie never got off the ground — and it’s not because of Kevin Feige.
First announced in 2019, Marvel Studios’ highly anticipated Blade reboot suffered numerous setbacks and was ultimately canceled. Despite training for years in multiple martial arts to the point where he literally blew out his knee, Mahershala Ali found himself so frustrated with the project that he completely washed his hands of the role and went on to use his newfound ass-kicking skills in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
Having directed Blade 2, we asked del Toro why he thought this project fell through — and, for him, it’s all about Wesley Snipes’ unmistakable star power.
“I’m telling you — and I mean it because I know it — 50% of the ‘Blade-ness’ of Blade is Wesley Snipes. He is not the most linear actor to deal with, right? But every time he stood in front of the lens, I said, ‘That’s a movie star,’” he answered.
“For example, I showed him a gun we designed — beautiful, [Dieter] Reinhardt, Ron Pearlman ends up using it, with a blade on the front — and he looked at it. ‘Not for Blade. Cold gun, but not for Blade.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Blade is the weapon.’ He said, ‘I don’t want the toys. I want the man. The man is a dangerous guy. You give me too many toys, and that’s the Batmobile and the Bat belt. That’s not Blade.’ And I went, ‘Ah, this guy knows it.’”
While del Toro went on to joke that Snipes is actually “100%” of Blade’s ‘Blade-ness,’ he said the other 50% of the equation comes out to “the filmmaker articulating,” and described how he studied Stephen Norrington’s filmmaking style to bring his own unique flair to the IP for its second film.
“I had four or five moving boxes worth of dailies from [Stephen Norrington’s] movie,” he said. “And I studied all those VHS tapes. I understood exactly how he shot it. He did some formations that were really extraordinarily weird. For example, he had a low camera with a longer lens in front of a high camera with a wide lens facing each other. …and then I started his formations and I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to go at it differently.’
“But there is one setup on Blade 2, which is 13 cameras working at the same time like a ballet. This camera is moving this way and then it crosses this one right on time for my cut. So I would cut before we shoot. So what they did is extraordinary. I know it.”
He also praised Norrington’s first Blade film for helping to break the mold of comic book movies, crediting it for ushering in a new age of superhero flick that has continued into the modern day.
“Every time [Snipes] landed, every time he turned, he’s a Neil Adams comic book [character]. And he has the natural sort of comic book [look]. I think Blade 1, Steve’s movie, changed the history of comic book movies for me, period. Because before that, you had either the cleanliness, the beauty, and sort of wholesomeness of Richard Donner’s Superman, or you had the quirkiness of Tim Burton’s Batman. But this is what ushered the ‘tude, the edge. Without Steve Norrington’s Blade, I don’t think there is The Matrix. I don’t think there is X-Men. I think what they did is monumental. And then I inherited and was completely, irresponsibly happy to do that.”
In a funny anecdote, del Toro told us that he discovered Red Bull while filming Blade 2, which he affectionately dubbed his “cocaine movie” due to the fact that he was chugging “40” cans of the energy drink per day.
“Actually, [Blade 2] and Pacific Rim are probably the two most fun movies I’ve ever shot. I really had fun. It may have been helped by the fact that Red Bull had just come out, and I didn’t know how to use it. So I was drinking, and I’m not joking, about 40 Red Bulls a day.
“I was like in a cocaine movie. I was like, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ And I would order cases and cases of Red Bull and throw them to the extras. When I went back to America, Red Bull started traveling from Europe to there. And my doctor said, ‘You cannot consume more than four.’ I was drinking 40. The arterial damage, man!”
While Wesley Snipes was able to reprise his role as Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s unlikely that he’ll return to the part for a future Blade movie — if another one ever gets made in this lifetime, that is. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige famously admitted that he felt like a “gigantic loser and failure” for not getting Ali’s Blade off the ground,” a statement that Ali wholeheartedly agreed with in a subsequent interview.
“To this day, I don’t know why it didn’t happen. I just know that Kevin said it was the biggest failure of his career, and I agree,” he said. “…he should feel that way.”
Our full, extended interview with Guillermo del Toro is available to watch now. If you’re hungry for more interviews, you can check out a previous episode of the IGN30 Icons Series, where we chatted with Ken Levine, creator of famed games like System Shock 2 and its spiritual successor, Bioshock.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
