Blade (franchise)

Blade
The Blade Trilogy DVD box set
Directed by	Stephen Norrington (Blade) Guillermo del Toro (Blade II) David S. Goyer (Trinity)
Written by	David S. Goyer Michael Starrbury
Based on	Blade by Marv Wolfman Gene Colan
Starring	Wesley Snipes
Music by	Mark Isham (Blade) Marco Beltrami (Blade II) Ramin Djawadi The RZA (Trinity)
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	1998–2006
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$164 million[1]
Box office	$417 million[1]

Blade is a superhero film and television franchise based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Wesley Snipes as Blade in the original trilogy, and Sticky Fingaz in the television series. The original trilogy was directed by Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro and David S. Goyer, the latter of whom also wrote the films and served as a co-writer for the first and last two episodes of the television series. The original films and television series were distributed by New Line Cinema from 1998 to 2006.

The character was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic The Tomb of Dracula. In the comic, Blade's mother was bitten by a vampire while she was in labor with Blade, rendering him immune to being turned into a vampire; following the release of the 1998 film Blade, the character was retroactively made into a dhampir and redesigned to match his movie counterpart. In 2024, Snipes reprised his role as the character in the film Deadpool & Wolverine.

Blade grows up to become a vampire hunter, swearing vengeance on the creatures that killed his mother. He teams up with a man called Whistler, a retired vampire hunter and weapons expert.

Meanwhile, in the urban underworld, a feud is started between "pure-blood" vampires and those who had been human, but were "turned". Blade becomes aware of this and investigates further, uncovering a plot to raise the blood god La Magra, something he must stop at all costs.

A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. "Reapers" are vampires so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires who were trained in all modes of combat to defeat Blade. They'll use their skills instead to help wipe out the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.

In the final installment of the series, the vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of a human (who was in fact a familiar being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, is forced to join forces with the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. Blade, Hannibal King, and Abigail Whistler go after Danica Talos, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting Drake, also known as Dracula, the first vampire and by far the most powerful. In order to stop him, Blade has to release a virus that will wipe out all vampires, but being a dhampir, he must face the possibility of also dying as a result.

In October 2008, Blade director Stephen Norrington was confirmed to be developing a prequel trilogy to Blade, featuring Stephen Dorff reprising his role as Deacon Frost.^[2][3] However, by August 2012, the film rights to Blade had reverted to Marvel Studios.^[4]

In October 2016, star of the Underworld film series Kate Beckinsale stated that a crossover film between the franchises had been discussed as a sequel to Blade: Trinity with Snipes returning, but was declined because Marvel Studios had plans to introduce the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.^[5]

In 2006, Spike TV aired a thirteen-episode series set after the events of Blade: Trinity, with Sticky Fingaz portraying Blade, replacing Snipes. Goyer (who wrote the scripts for all three of the films and directed the third film) also created the series.

• Blade – based on Blade, released in 2000.^[19]
• Blade II – based on Blade II, released in 2002.^[20]
• Blade Trinity - based on Blade III, released in 2004 exclusively for mobile phones.^[21]

In May 2013, Marvel had a working script for a new Blade film.^[22] Snipes said in July 2015 that he hoped to reprise the role in any future film and had discussed this with Marvel.^[23][24][25] In 2019, Marvel Studios announced a Blade reboot set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with Mahershala Ali being cast as the title character.^[26] It was scheduled to be released on November 7, 2025.^[27] In October 2024, Disney removed the film from its release schedule.^[28]

Snipes reprised his role as the character in the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine.^[29]