Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, before Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man films and before the original X-Men trilogy, there was Blade. The Marvel vampire hunter essentially kickstarted the modern era of superhero movies back in 1998, and now, fans in the U.S. can relive the action as the film trilogy makes its way to streaming.
The Blade trilogy stars Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks, a half-vampire or 'dhampir' who has the strengths of a vampire but is devoted to eradicating them. Snipes played the character in three films, Blade (1998), Blade II (2002) and Blade Trinity (2004). Blade was heralded as one of the first major comic book movie successes and remains one of the few Marvel films with an R-rating thanks to its horror and violence.
After the film trilogy, the character lived on in Blade: The Series and appeared in cartoons like Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Ultimate Spider-Man. But now audiences have the chance to go back to where it all began by experiencing Blade on streaming.
Blade Trilogy Comes To Netflix
As of April 1, 2022 (no, this is not an April Fool's joke) the Blade trilogy has found a new streaming home.
Blade, Blade II and Blade: Trinity can now all be streamed on Netflix in the U.S.
Marvel Still Has A Home On Netflix
Netflix may have recently lost its Marvel heroes in The Defenders saga, but the streaming service is making up for it with the arrival of the Blade trilogy.
While the rights to the Blade character remain with Marvel Studios, the streaming rights to the original film trilogy seem to be fair game, allowing the series to find a home on Netflix, at least for now.
In 2019, it was announced that the iconic vampire hunter would return in a new film set within the MCU. Mahershala Ali was cast as the lead and actors like Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre have since signed on. The new Blade movie is still in production but the character's arrival was already teased at the end of Eternals, so it's clear Marvel has big plans for the vampire slayer.
The character has a rich history in the comics, particularly with Marvel's major vampire Morbius, who also just received his own film adaptation. It's hard to say if these two will ever cross over, particularly seeing as Sony holds the rights to Morbius at the moment.
What seems more likely is that Marvel Studios is preparing for an adaptation of Midnight Sons, which brings together a supernatural team of heroes that includes the likes of Moon Knight, Ghost Rider and Blade.
Regardless of where the character goes next in the MCU there's no better time to relive the original films on Netflix than now.
