Every Blade Movie Ranked (Including Deadpool & Wolverine)

In 1998, Marvel's "Blade" movie totally blew the minds of theater-goers, helping to usher in the comic book movie mania that we have today. But how do its sequels hold up? 

Stephen Norrington's "Blade" was based on the Marvel comics character of the same name, a daywalking half-vampire played by Wesley Snipes who worked as a vampire hunter. Between its killer cool violence and thumping soundtrack, the movie paved the way for a whole brood of flicks in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was followed by Guillermo del Toro's "Blade II" in 2002 and David S. Goyer's "Blade: Trinity" in 2004, but Snipes wouldn't don the fangs again for another 20 years, until Shawn Levy's 2024 film "Deadpool & Wolverine" featured a pretty great Blade cameo. 

While there was going to be a "Blade" movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) starring Mahershala Ali, that movie has been in development hell for years and is probably as dead as most of Blade's enemies at this point. There was also a Blade TV series for the cable channel Spike that ran for one season in 2006, starring rapper Sticky Fingaz as the titular daywalker, but nothing's been quite the same as seeing Snipes play one of the coolest comic book characters to ever hit the silver screen. Here's a list of every Blade movie, ranked.

This one personally hurts me a little, because "Blade: Trinity" has gotten a lot of hate over the years but is still a really fun movie. After writing the first two "Blade" movies, David S. Goyer finally stepped behind the camera of "Blade: Trinity" as director, and unfortunately it didn't work out too well. The filming of "Blade: Trinity" has become infamous, with co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Patton Oswalt sharing tales of Wesley Snipes refusing to film most of his scenes or answer to anything but "Blade," and you can see that chaos in the final film. Snipes allegedly hated working with Reynolds, and as a result, Blade really isn't in the movie much.

"Blade: Trinity" follows Blade after he's recruited by The Nightstalkers, which include Reynolds as smart-mouthed Hannibal King and Jessica Biel as the bow-wielding Abigail Whistler, daughter of Blade's bestie and former partner, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). They team up because the vampires, led by Danica Talos (Parker Posey), are trying to resurrect Dracula himself (Dominic Purcell). 

The movie is kind of a hot mess, but it does feature some truly great moments and is more fun than most people remember. It's hard to really hate a movie that has Dracula checking out a store that's basically Hot Topic and being disgusted, and it's a joy to watch Reynolds and Posey trade barbs. If the whole thing had been just the two of them, it wouldn't be a "Blade" movie, but it would have been better than "Trinity" turned out. 

While "Deadpool & Wolverine" is arguably not a Blade movie, it does feature Wesley Snipes as Blade, and that's enough for the purposes of this particular list. After Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) are banished to a place called the Void by the Time Variance Authority for causing some time-traveling shenanigans, they run into a number of other Marvel characters stuck in the Void. Among them are Channing Tatum as Gambit from an unproduced "X-Men" movie, Jennifer Garner's Elektra, and Snipes as Blade, whose films weren't a part of the official MCU because they were released by New Line Cinema. There's a whole lot of great meta-humor, and the best part is that by appearing as Blade one last time, Snipes actually broke a major Marvel movie record by playing a character for the longest number of years. 

After the frustrations of making "Blade: Trinity," Snipes took some convincing to come back for the cameo, but it was well worth it. He got to make a couple of great jokes that both did justice to his character and gave fans a perfect meta-giggle with a joke about there only being one Blade, and honestly? It was just a blast to see him having fun as the character again. 

Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro doesn't miss, and his shot at the vampire-slaying badassery of the "Blade" universe came in the excellent "Blade II." "Blade II" is the most action-packed of the series, with an elite force of what amount to vampire ninjas teaming up with Blade to take on a new, more dangerous kind of vampire. Inspired by an Oscar-winning classic about unusual team-ups in times of war, "Blade II" is a heart-pounding, butt-kicking good time with the best creature designs in the whole series. The mutant vampire Reapers are almost impossibly cool, with jaws that open like something out of "Predator," and they're genuinely scary. When you add in a supporting cast that includes Norman Reedus as one of Blade and Whistler's associates and Ron Perlman as one of the vampire assassins who really hates Blade, you're guaranteed to have a bloody good time. 

The only real issue with "Blade II" is that there's a fair bit of computer-generated imagery (CGI) during the fight scenes that hasn't aged particularly well, making for a few ugly moments that some fans just can't ignore. Beyond that, however, del Toro really succeeded in making a comic book movie that felt like a comic book, and "Blade II" is a real kick in the pants.

It's truly hard to overstate the impact that "Blade" had on not only comic book movies, but movies in general. The modest success of "Blade" led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it while also influencing other films of the time. Do you really think there ever would have been an "Underworld" without this first "Blade" film? The movie's impact was massive because it showed studios that people would watch a comic book movie for adults that wasn't about one of the members of the Justice League. Beyond its success and legacy, however, it's also just a darn good movie.

The first "Blade" gives us his origin story and features the franchise's best villain, ambitious young vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), who wants to overthrow the old vampires and start a new order. Everyone is operating at maximum levels of late 1990s cool, and the movie's opening sequence with a vampire blood rave is completely unforgettable. There's also more story to the first film, as Blade contends with meeting his vampire mother and has to struggle with his own vampiric nature. There are plenty of great moments in the other "Blade" movies, but when it comes to this franchise, there's just no topping the original. That would be like trying to ice-skate uphill, and fans know how Blade feels about that. 

"Blade" daywalked so the rest of the superheroes and bloodsuckers could run, so we're here to give it some respect and remind folks that the original "Blade" absolutely rules.