The Blade trilogy, released between 1998 and 2004, starred Wesley Snipes as the titular character, Blade, who is a half-vampire, half-human warrior with a mission to eradicate vampires and protect humanity from their bloodthirsty reign.
The original Blade movie, directed by Stephen Norrington, had an alternate ending featuring Morbius, however, fans never got that version. This ending would have set up the events of Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, but the whole idea was scrapped.
Morbius finally made a disappointing film debut with 2022’s Morbius. The idea was deleted because Guillermo del Toro wanted to do his own thing after Norrington left. Norrington was very supportive of the idea, in fact, the person who played Morbius in the cameo was Norrington himself.
Morbius cameo was deleted from Blade (1998)
Director Stephen Norrington planned an alternate ending for 1998’s Blade. In the final scene Blade and Karen are talking on the rooftop after their battle with Deacon Frost. In the deleted scene, Karen then tells him “You’re on the clock,” with the camera then focusing on a figure watching the two from a nearby building.
That person is Morbius, played by Stephen Norrington himself. This was done by Norrington and writer David Goyer in order to set up the sequel. However, after Guillermo del Toro took over, things had to be changed.
Why was the cameo canceled?
Stephen Norrington left the project after the first movie, so when director Guillermo del Toro took over, he planned everything out and as per his plan, Morbius was out.
All three films, Blade (1998), Blade II (2002), and Blade: Trinity (2004) were widely praised for their action sequences and performances by the main cast. Earning over $400 million at the global box office, the trilogy shaped the future of the superhero genre.
A reboot, which will be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is currently under production and is expected to be released in September 2024 with actor Mahershala Ali playing the title role.
What happened to Morbius?
Roughly 25 years after Morbius’ scrapped cameo, a film that primarily focused on the character was finally released in 2022. Morbius was the third film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which was released in 2022 after being delayed several times from an initial July 2020 date.
The film was a disaster, it was heavily criticized for its writing, visual effects, and post-credits scenes, becoming one of the worst movies in its genre. During its initial release, the film made roughly $167 million worldwide, and then a lot of memes were made mocking its failure. Sony then decided to re-release the film in theaters in June 2022 due to popular memes, only to face another commercial failure.
Source: Bloody Disgusting
