What Does the Blade Film Mean for the MCU

Marvel recently announced that the character of Blade will be introduced into the MCU in his own feature film sometime in 2023. Blade is a daywalker which is a variation on a vampire and his inclusion means a lot for the MCU. Until recently, Blade was owned by Fox but Disney negotiated for the rights to the character when buying out Fox Entertainment which explains the lack of the characters inclusion until now. Disney has been slowly incorporating the Fox properties into the MCU ever since the purchase and while it’s clear that Blade is not necessarily their top priority, he is a popular character which is likely why they are including him now.

Another reason one might find Blade’s inclusion interesting is but it brings more diversity into the roster of Heroes. Superheroes, and Marvel specifically, have been criticized in the past over a lack of diversity among their heroic ranks. Marvel seems much more interested in diversity as a top priority recently with films such as The Black Panther, Shang-Chi and now Blade. Additionally, The Black Panther and Shang-Chi both did relatively well even compared to other Marvel films at the box office and considering the popularity of the character of Blade, that film will likely also succeed immensely.

The introduction of Blade also means a lot within the universe of the MCU. There are questions about how the X-Men will be properly integrated into the universe considering mutants don’t exist in-universe, however, a similar problem exists with Blade since vampires also don’t exist in the MCU or else they’ve been hidden really well up until this point. Obviously the real world explanation for this is that Disney didn’t have the rights to these characters until very recently but it’ll be interesting to see how they are integrated into this universe without Reckoning the universe. Another problem with only adding Blade now is that the MCU would have to have explained where the character has been this whole time. Blade does not have a standard hero origin, as he was born a Daywalker. However, through teasers for Spiderman: No Way Home and Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness, we got hints that characters from other universes, such as the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy,, will be making their debut in the MCU and it is possible that they will introduce Blade in a similar way, by simply taking him from an alternate time-line. Overall blade is a very popular superhero and it will be interesting to see the implementation of the character into the immensely popular MCU.