Original Blade Actor Stephen Dorff Slams Marvel’s Reboot

Fans shouldn’t expect Stephen Dorff to buy a ticket to Marvel’s Blade reboot. Although the upcoming film has Wesley Snipes’ seal of approval, his old co-star, who played the vampire Deacon Frost back in 1998, doesn’t have as many kind things to say about the studio’s plans to bring the Daywalker back to the big screen. In fact, he’s not very keen on the MCU in general.

Dorff made his feelings known during a recent interview with The Daily Beast. In his view, not all comic book adaptations are bad. He even confessed that he’d star in one today if it was done in the vein of Blade or Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. However, everything else is “worthless garbage.”

“All this other garbage is just embarrassing, you know what I mean?” said Dorff. “I mean, God bless them, they’re making a bunch of money, but their movies suck [laughs]. And nobody’s going to remember them. Nobody’s remembering Black Adam at the end of the day. I didn’t even see that movie, it looked so bad.”

This isn’t the first time that Dorff has criticized the films of the MCU. While speaking with the U.K.’s Independent for an interview published days before Black Widow’s release in 2021, he made waves when he said the movie looked like “garbage” and “a bad video game.” Dorff also said he felt “embarrassed” on behalf of film’s star, Scarlett Johansson. He later walked back these remarks in a subsequent chat with TMZ. Regardless, he has no interest in a new Blade, even with his former True Detective co-star Mahershala Ali playing the title role.

RELATED: Bassam Tariq Praises Yann Demange as Blade’s New Director

“Marvel is used to me trashing them anyway,” added Dorff. “How’s that PG Blade movie going for you, that can’t get a director? [laughs] Because anybody who goes there is going to be laughed at by everyone, because we already did it and made it the best. There’s no Steve Norrington out there.”

To be fair, Blade’s return to screens hasn’t been a smooth ride. The movie has suffered a number of setbacks that ultimately led Marvel to push back its release by almost a full year last fall. But Dorff clearly hasn’t been keeping up with the news, because Yann Demange has since come aboard to replace Bassam Tariq in the director’s chair. Plus, it seems highly unlikely that the film will get anything less than a PG-13 rating.

As for Norrington, who helmed Snipes and Dorff’s original Blade film, he hasn’t directed a movie of his own since The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which earned overwhelmingly negative reviews upon its release in 2003. It was also reportedly such a behind-the-scenes nightmare that Sean Connery later cited it as one of the main reasons why he retired from acting.    

Blade will hit theaters on September 6, 2024.

How do you feel about Dorff’s remarks? Let us know in the comment section below!

Recommended Reading: Blade by Marc Guggenheim: The Complete Collection

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