This post contains massive spoilers for “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

It was very clear from early on in the process that “Deadpool & Wolverine” was going to be chock full of cameos from throughout the multiverse. While the first two “Deadpool” films were relatively contained adventures — at least compared to other entries in the superhero genre — this is a full-blown, big-budget romp through Marvel projects of old. That meant bringing back some big names from the past, leading to some big surprises for fans. The biggest surprise of all? Wesley Snipes made his return as Blade a full 20 years after he hung up the fangs.

Snipes came out on stage after a special screening of “Deadpool & Wolverine” at SDCC, and he was met with a warm response from the crowd. Following the screening, Snipes spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his return to the Marvel universe. It was particularly surprising given that he and Ryan Reynolds didn’t exactly get along while filming 2004’s “Blade: Trinity.” As the actor explained, he had conversations with Marvel Studios over the years but, at a certain point, he moved on, assuming Blade was just a thing of the past.

“Over the years, we’ve had very interesting conversations, some of them very substantive and some of them not. 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.”

In 2018, Snipes teased that he had conversations with Marvel saying that they “created two projects that fit perfectly into this world.” Whatever those may have been, it seemingly amounted to nothing. Everything changed when Reynolds texted Snipes saying, “I want to talk to you.”

A call from Ryan Reynolds revived Wesley Snipes’ Blade
As Reynolds and director Shawn Levy were putting together “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the idea to bring back Snipes as Blade as one of the heroes trapped in The Void seeking to defeat Cassandra Nova came up. It provided an opportunity to revive Snipes’ version of the Daywalker within the MCU. Even so, Snipes had his doubts, at least at first.

“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 [Ali] 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.’ He told me the idea … They said ‘yes’ and ‘it’s a go.’ ‘If you’re in, we’re in.’ Here we are.”

To Snipes’ point, Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali is indeed on deck to take on the role for Marvel Studios. However, the “Blade” reboot has been long-troubled, having recently lost a second director. It’s currently set to be released next year but, given where things stand, that seems unlikely. So Snipes got at least one last go-around as the character in what figures to be one of the biggest movies of 2024.

If this movie is indeed a goodbye of sorts to the Marvel universe of old, it only seems fitting that Snipes get a moment in the sun. 1998’s “Blade” was Marvel’s first-ever box office hit and, in many ways, the start of the superhero boom as we know it. Snipes even quips in the film that there’s only one Blade. Ali and/or some other actor may well change that narrative one day but, for now, Snipes remains the one true Blade.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is in theaters now.