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Sep 02, 2023

Wesley Snipes' Blade Trilogy Lands New Streaming Home

Warner Bros. Discovery announces that it will be adding Wesley Snipes' Blade trilogy to its Max streaming platform in September. Wesley Snipes' Blade trilogy is heading to Warner Bros. Discovery's Max

Warner Bros. Discovery announces that it will be adding Wesley Snipes' Blade trilogy to its Max streaming platform in September.

Wesley Snipes' Blade trilogy is heading to Warner Bros. Discovery's Max streaming service.

Per The Direct, the three films in the supernatural-infused superhero trilogy will begin streaming on Max on Friday, Sept. 1. This will be the first time that Blade has been available to stream on any service since its two-month stay on Hulu from October to December 2022.

RELATED: Blade Co-Creator Marv Wolfman Returns for What If...? Dark

Created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan, Blade debuted in Marvel Comics' The Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973. He was originally depicted as a human who, since he is immune to vampire bites, devotes his life to ridding the world of all vampires. However, after the character was depicted as a dhampir -- the product of a union between a half human and half vampire -- in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Snipes' Blade trilogy, he was retroactively established as such in the comics.

Directed by Stephen Norrington, the first Blade film was released in 1998, following Snipes' titular Daywalker as he hunted down bloodsuckers with an arsenal of high-tech gadgets. The film was an unexpected hit with audiences and was followed by two sequels: Guillermo Del Toro's Blade II in 2002 and David S. Goyer's Blade: Trinity in 2004. The trilogy's success at the box office has been credited with paving the way for other Marvel Comics adaptations like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise.

RELATED: Marvel Delays Avengers 5 & 6, Fantastic Four, Blade and More

Marvel Studios is currently developing a reboot of Blade with Mahershala Ali set to play the title character. Although Marvel announced both the reboot and Ali's casting in July 2019, Blade remains stuck in the pre-production phase over four years later. Filming was originally scheduled to begin in October 2022 but was delayed following Bassam Tariq's exit as director. He was replaced by Yann Demange a month later. Production was then set to begin this summer but was pushed back yet again following the Writers Guild of America strike. Filming is now expected to begin following the conclusion of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Plot details remain unknown at this time. There have been multiple reports stating that Ali has been unimpressed with previous drafts of the film's screenplay and has requesting that multiple changes be made before he fully commits to the project. As a result, several writers have come on board to take a crack at the screenplay. Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour was the original Blade scribe, but she was replaced with X-Men '97 head writer Beau DeMayo, who in turn was replaced with True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who is reportedly doing a page-one rewrite on the film.

The Blade trilogy will be available to stream on Max beginning Sept. 1.

Source: The Direct

Lee Freitag is a Senior Writer at CBR, reporting on the latest movie and TV news. Raised on the Canadian Prairies, Lee enjoys spending time with friends and family and watching Back to the Future for what has to be the hundredth time.