Marvel Studios held a special Deadpool & Wolverine screening at Comic-Con yesterday evening and spoiled the movie's biggest cameos by bringing Jennifer Garner, Channing Tatum, Chris Evans, and Wesley Snipes out on stage.
In the movie, they play Variants of Elektra, Gambit, the Human Torch, and Blade. Snipes, now 61, first suited up the Daywalker in 1998 and bid farewell to the role in 2004 when he starred in the disappointing Blade: Trinity...alongside Ryan Reynolds.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, the iconic actor addressed his MCU debut. "Over the years, we've had very interesting conversations, some of them very substantive and some of them not," he explained. "So I kind of resided that I was moving on from them, which is okay. I did three of them, and I thought they turned out pretty good. Not so bad... So we move on to other things, and bigger and better things, as well."
However, everything changed when Reynolds - who Snipes famously didn't get on with while making the Blade threequel - sent a text message to his old co-star saying, "I want to talk to you."
Snipes recalls, "I did not think it was possible. I didn't think we would be able to pull it off. I didn't think that Marvel was into it, Disney was into it — also because they had Mahershala cast for the next upcoming version of it."
"I thought it didn't make sense to me, but [when] you get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue after 20 years, you go, 'Okay, I got to take this call. Let's see what this is about,'" the actor adds. "He told me the idea... They said 'yes' and 'it's a go.' 'If you're in, we're in.' Here we are."
After detailing the work he put into getting back into Blade shape, Snipes opened up on moving on from any differences he and Reynolds might have had once upon a time.
"Some of the things he did back in those days, that's not really my humor," he says of their time working together in 2004. "I'm not tuned in that way. So I thought, 'Well, it's a little over the top for me.' But seeing him do it in this context [in Deadpool & Wolverine] made a lot of sense. And seeing him do it and do it well, Ryan does something that most people can't do."
"He's unique in that way, and he's found a fantastic niche for himself doing what he does. Deadpool is Ryan Reynolds all day long. So it was enjoyable. It was enjoyable to work with him. It was enjoyable to revisit."
As for Marvel Studios' reboot plans, Snipes added, "I shouted [Mahershala Ali] out, told him he's got all my blessings and support. I even referenced the fact that some of the challenges they're facing now with the project, it shouldn't be accredited to him."
"It's not the actor's fault," he points out. "There's a lot more that goes on with pulling this Blade stuff off. You need a lot of secret sauce to do the Blade thing, man. Good luck. You're my man, though."
Snipes has also shared some comments on X about returning as Blade for what will presumably be the final time...well, until Avengers: Secret Wars, perhaps!