MCU Phase 4: 10 Ways Marvel Could Reboot Blade

9. Under The Marvel Knights Banner

Marvel Studios

Before the introduction of the MCU's Netflix-verse in 2015, Marvel Studios had another destination for their darker properties: under the banner of Marvel Knights.

The onscreen imprint, derived from the titular street-level comics of the early 2000s, only had two films to its name in Punisher: War Zone and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, but there's no reason why it couldn't be revived along with Blade. It was a neat little way of differentiating the more mainstream Marvel properties (exemplified in the MCU by Iron Man, Captain America and Thor), with its less conventional ones, like Punisher, Ghost Rider and - while he's not niche by any definition - Blade; these characters fit on the fringes of the Marvel Universe, and a darker, more mature banner to denote those boundaries is a useful tool to the discerning studio.

If Marvel were to bring Blade back to the big-screen, then it would make sense for them to do it in a way that differentiates it from the normal MCU. It has to be violent, bursting with horror and atmospheric to its core - the kind of things you don't tend to find together in Marvel's big cinematic properties.

Marvel Knights isn't an essential tool to bring Blade back, but in looking to carve a new portion of the MCU, it could prove to be valuable.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.