Why Wesley Snipes Thinks Mahershala Ali Will Be A ‘Great’ Blade

Wesley Snipes did a lot more than give a strong and memorable performance as Marvel Comics’ vampire slayer Blade back in 1998. Snipes led the project that not only tested the waters on superhero cinema but helped ignite pop culture’s big and small screen comic book craze.

Snipes played the daywalker in three Blade movies, wrapping up his take on the character in 2004’s Blade: Trinity.

Now, 18 years later and smack dab in the middle of superhero mania, filming is slated to begin shortly on another Blade film starring two-time Academy Awarding winner Mahershala Ali as the title character who is a highly-anticipated addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Wesley voiced some support about the re-casting early on for Mahershala on Twitter back in November of 2021, but hasn’t spoken much beyond that until now.

While promoting his new graphic novel THE EXILED, which launched via a Kickstarter campaign in late June, Snipes spoke more on his opinion of Ali as an actor.

“Because he’s a good actor, he’s a talented actor, and he appreciates the craft, the art form of acting,” Wesley told me via Zoom video last week when asked why Mahershala will make a ‘great’ Blade, as Wesley previously said.

“Those who approach the craft that way usually do very, very well, and I think he’s done pretty good so far, so I have great confidence. And his name is Mahershala Ali, come on!

“But at the end of the day, his performance is not in a microcosm. It’s not by itself. The production, the other actors, the other producers, and creators have to all gel together for the film to work. So we wish them well. Go for it; good luck.”

THE EXILED Kickstarter backers have the opportunity to receive the collector’s edition 140-page graphic novel, along with a manga-sized “Go Version”, and an additional story set in the world of THE EXILED.

The graphic novel focuses on detective Niles “Roach” Washington as he pursues a serial killer in the aftermath of a deadly gas attack.

Snipes, who helped create THE EXILED’s story with Keith Arem and Adam Lawson, said he implemented lessons he learned working on the Blade films and other projects in his impressive body of work to THE EXILED’s story creation.

“I mean, storytelling with some images go a long way, I think,” Snipes said. “There’s a lot that you can do with a good story and some fantastic imagery. We try to bring the cool, and we set it in the Bronx, so that was a good start. …

“The thing I realized, or one of the things I realized, is that once you begin a story and you establish some parameters, the physics of the world, the setting of the world, the risk, once you establish that, you got to stay true to it,” Wesley said. “And the second trick is to not telegraph what is coming next. Tricky to do in graphic novels. A little easier to do with film when it’s done right. But yeah, I think that’s what I’ve brought to it so far.”

Arem, CEO and Creative Director of PCB Productions, first met Snipes working on 1994’s Demolition Man video game.

“We connected creatively,” Arem said of his working relationship with Snipes. “I mean, all the projects that we’ve crossed paths on over the years, starting from Demolition Man back over 25 years ago, and then through what we’ve been working on now, with these graphic novels and into other productions, has always been rooted in the creativity.

“And what’s amazing about working with Wesley, and Adam as well, is that we’re all storytellers at heart with a different background and experience in how we achieve those stories.

“More people know me through video games and sort of the new media that I’ve worked on, Wesley, obviously, through his film career and as an actor and as a producer, as a writer, and then Adam, who’s also a producer, an amazing writer, and a showrunner, so we all have a lot of practical world experience of knowing how to get productions going, but this is the [creativity] that we’ve always wanted to see. …

“So working with Wesley has been such an amazing journey because he looks at it not just from his own perspective as a character, what would my character do, how would I approach this as a character, but also as a producer, as a creator, as someone who knows where this is going to be realized in other mediums, eventually.”

Helping create “Roach”, the graphic novel’s main character, was a rewarding experience for Wesley.

“It reminds me of being in repertory theater and creating the show from the ground up,” Snipes said. “From story to characters to scenes to costumes to the final performance, it’s kind of that process that I’ve grown up in from acting school, and the who, what, when, where, and why was always important.

“And when you can start that from the ground up, have it be really organic and let your mind be free and your mind be creative, it’s very rewarding, even when they boo. If they boo, it’s still rewarding.”

Wesley also spoke to whether or not Marvel Studios would be rewarding him with a cameo in the Blade reboot or at least an invite and travel assistance to the premiere, or if he has even had any communication with the entertainment titans regarding the upcoming project.

“I hear it from other people who hear it from other people,” Snipes shared with a laugh in regards to contact with Marvel. “But they haven’t backed the truck up yet to the house and said, ‘Let’s ride.’ They haven’t done that one yet.”

Wesley’s career began to take off after his portrayal of Willie Mays Hayes in 1989’s Major League.

Snipes said similar to pro baseball, when the cast and crew shot at the baseball field it was all business on the set.

“It always got serious when we got to the baseball field, and all of the light stuff and all of the fun stuff left once we got to the fields,” Wesley recalled. “The guys were wonderful. I mean, the strange thing for me is that I had never played professional baseball or intramurals or any kind of organized baseball. So, for me, it was totally, totally a new experience. And they enjoyed me popping up all the time. They got a real kick out of it.”

Snipes, who’s always sported noticeable athleticism in his action-heavy films, said there wasn’t much research on baserunning ahead of playing the speedy and chatty Hayes.

“I wish they would have given me some training on running. I wish,” Wesley said. “Yeah. No, I didn’t do very much of it at that time. [I] had to do what I saw on television. And after take number 27 … I figured I probably got it right. And I was so happy when they said, ‘Cut. We got it. All right. That’s a wrap.’ I still have the scars on my butt right now from that movie.”