While Blade is officially moving to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one non-MCU vampire movie star still hopes to see the Daywalker appear in her franchise somehow.
Underworld star Kate Beckinsale recently told Variety that, despite not knowing the franchise's future, merging Blade and Selene's worlds together always appealed to her as a story idea. "I really wanted them to do an Underworld/Blade mashup. What a duo that would be," Beckinsale said, admitting, "I would definitely do that, but I think they just wanted to reboot Blade as Blade so they didn't go for it."
A Blade crossover with Underworld was briefly considered but never went anywhere. According to Beckinsale during a 2016 Q&A for the franchise's fifth movie, Underworld: Blood Wars, Underworld's production team pitched the idea to Marvel only for them to turn it down because, as she put it, "They're doing something else with Blade." By that point, New Line Cinema had sold Marvel Studios the character's rights back and had not made a live-action Blade film since 2004's Blade: Trinity, which came out a year after the first Underworld was released.
Originating in 1973's The Tomb of Dracula #10, Blade made his official cinematic debut in the 1998 film Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington and starring Wesley Snipes in the title role. The film marked Marvel's first successful movie adaptation of a comic book character, resulting in two sequels, Blade II and Blade Trinity, and the short-lived Blade: The Series on Spike.
Written by Stacy Osei-Kuffour and directed by Bassam Tariq, Blade stars Mahershala Ali. The film has yet to receive a release date.
Source: Variety