Wesley Snipes Supports Mahershala Ali Taking Over As The New Blade

Photo Courtesy of Instagram/ Mahershala Ali

On November 11, actor Wesley Snipes recently took to social media to show support for fellow actor Mahershala Ali who is taking over as the protagonist for the reboot of Blade.

In response to a Twitter user who wrote, “Best of luck to Mahershala Ali who’s gonna smash it I’m sure as Blade, but he’s gonna have a hard time outdoing Wesley Snipes,” Snipes said, “He will do great,” and added the prayer hands emoji.

Ali spoke to Empire Online about his thoughts on the upcoming film, to which he said, “That Marvel world is obviously the biggest in film, and just to get my little introduction to that – starting with the Comic-Con a couple of years ago, and now the very early stages of stepping into the shoes of that character – it felt special and really cool.”

“I’m excited to get going and do more,” Ali added.

According to Polygon, Snipes previously portrayed Blade as the vampire-hunter in three movies: 1998’s Blade, 2002’s Blade 2, and 2004’s Blade: Trinity.

Blade originally debuted in Marvel Comics in 1973 as a supporting character as part of the 10 of The Tomb of Dracula.

Eric Brook, also known as Blade, got his superhuman powers after his mom was bitten by vampire Deacon Frost while Eric was still in the womb.

Blade has “all of the strengths of a vampire, and none of their weaknesses save one: a never-ending thirst for human blood,” according to a statement obtained from Marvel.

The newest Blade film does not currently have a release date, but it is expected to begin filming in July 2022. Bassam Tariq is set to direct the movie, while Stacy Osei-Kuffour will write the movie script.