This ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Cameo Perfectly Acknowledges Marvel’s Previous Triumphs and Current Issues

As soon as the multiverse is involved in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, you can expect to see some familiar—and some not so familiar yet equally intriguing—faces turn up.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, for instance, gave us Professor X, Captain Carter, a variant of Reed Richards, Black Bolt, and Monica Rambeau’s Captain Marvel. Deadpool & Wolverine, however, takes the cameo fest one step further.

Spoilers ahead for Deadpool & Wolverine.

The guest appearances and cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine aren’t just there for laughs—though they certainly provided plenty of those—shock value or fan service. Instead, Deadpool & Wolverine’s cameos, of which there are, admittedly, many, are all part of the movie’s core purpose: saying goodbye to the Fox universe that gave Deadpool, Wolverine, and all the other X-Men characters (as well as some famous non-X-Men characters) a chance to exist on the big screen. Without them, we arguably wouldn’t have an MCU, we definitely wouldn’t have Deadpool & Wolverine, and the movie acknowledges this with Deadpool’s trademark meta humor and some much-appreciated humility from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Channing Tatum’s never-before-seen Gambit, and Dafne Keen’s return as X-23 are all incredibly welcome, perhaps the most fun, surprising, and compelling extended cameo of all is Wesley Snipes’ Blade. Yes, the Blade has a role in Deadpool & Wolverine. But while this may be an MCU movie, the franchise’s current Blade, Mahershala Ali, is nowhere to be seen.

For the past few years, the MCU has been struggling to get its new version of Blade off the ground. Multiple directors and writers have come and gone, and while Mahershala Ali (who would clearly be excellent in the role) is currently still soldiering on, it’s clear there are some issues Marvel needs to contend with on the production front. Personally, I find it very hard to believe that this movie will actually be released next year.

While that version of Blade waits in the wings, Wesley Snipes’ iconic version of Blade makes a triumphant return in Deadpool & Wolverine, wearing his trademark sunglasses, acknowledging his previous Blade: Trinity beef with Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, and killing Cassandra Nova’s lackeys with ease. Best of all, Snipes and Reynolds joke that there will only ever be “one Blade,” a not-so-subtle acknowledgment of the MCU’s current vampire hunter woes.

It could be said that, without the success of the original Blade trilogy (which was actually produced and distributed by New Line Cinema, not Fox), the MCU as we know it wouldn’t exist today. The first Blade movie preceded the original X-Men film by two years and Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film by four. It proved that big-screen comic book adaptations could work, be genuinely entertaining, and successful, too.

Turns out, we owe it all to Wesley Snipes’ Blade. No wonder he returned in Deadpool & Wolverine.