10 Movie Franchises That Ended Too Soon

5. Blade

In the genre of superhero and comic book-driven movies, there's always a tough decision to be made on just when to bring a particular franchise to an end. For Wesley Snipes' time as the Daywalker, the Blade series was capped at three movies.

When looking across the superhero movie landscape, three is a relatively steady number for a character who mainstream audiences had little-to-no idea about before Snipes brought Blade to live-action life. The Fantastic Four were only afforded two films, Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider likewise had two, it was one-and-done for Ben Affleck's Daredevil, while Ron Perlman's time as Hellboy came to an end after two pictures.

To take a comic book character who was viewed as, let's be honest, a C or even D-list hero before Stephen Norrington's Blade was released in 1998, and to then have that character headline three movies, that can be viewed as quite the achievement.

What was most jarring about not getting a Blade 4 though, is that the landscape would've been perfect for several further Blade pictures. By that, I mean that the final Blade movie, 2005's Blade: Trinity, was released just three years before the superhero boom was taken to a whole other level with the release of the first Iron Man movie.

In the years since Iron Man, more and more people have become fans of any and all comic book films and characters, and that means it's always felt a little 'off' that Snipes' Blade didn't get some more time in the sun.

Of course, Mahershala Ali is soon to bring Blade to the MCU - but it's just unfortunate that we didn't get more of Snipes' Daywalker.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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