While we all await with anticipation for Blade to make his MCU debut, we can enjoy the trilogy of movies in which Wesley Snipes brought the character to life. The first film gets all the good attention, the third one gets all the infamous attention, but Blade II is often overlooked in conversation. So in honor of its 20th anniversary today, we thought it would be fun to look at 20 fun facts about Blade II.
1. Initially, screenwriter David S. Goyer intended to have Marvel’s Morbius as the primary villain of Blade II. However, New Line didn’t have the rights to that character (who was part of Sony’s Spider-Man deal). It would take until 2022 for Morbius to get his cinematic debut. Although the character did appear in cameo form in a deleted scene from the first Blade movie.
2. Blade director Stephen Norrington opted to move on to other projects (which included the disastrous League of Extraordinary Gentleman). At that point, Guillermo Del Toro was hired to direct to after New Line was impressed with his film Mimic, and his dark fantasy sensibilities.
3. Screenwriter David S. Goyer’s major inspiration was The Dirty Dozen, but with vampires.
4. Del Toro’s goal was to make vampires less romantic, and have them be scary again.
5. Michael Jackson was originally slated to have a cameo as a “vampire pimp”, however he wasn’t able to due to scheduling conflicts, and the scene that would have featured him was ultimately cut.
6. Damaskino’s visual appearance was based heavily on the iconic 1922 vampire movie Nosferatu, the earliest surviving Dracula adaptation.
7. The reaper design was influenced by the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
8. During the shooting of the vampire autopsy scene, the UV lights were used incorrectly and temporarily blinded many cast/crew members on set.
9. In addition to playing the character Snowman, Donnie Yen also served as Blade II’s fight choreographer.
10. Del Toro worked in several comic book references, including “Watchmen” as a reaper explodes very similarly to Dr. Manhattan.
11. Wesley Snipes could only be on set a limited amount of time, due to him shooting several other movies around the same time. As a result, most shots where Blade’s face isn’t shown, it’s actually his stunt double.
12. Reinhert’s racist comment towards Blade, “Do you blush?” was actually based on a real life encounter Wesley Snipes had years earlier.
13. Shot primarily on location in the Czech Republic.
14. Karel Roden’s (Kounen) Czech accent was so think that much of his dialogue was re-dubbed by a British actor because test audiences were having a hard time understanding him.
15. Despite the character being a neo-Nazi, Reinhert’s actor Ron Perlman is actually Jewish.
16. After principal photography, the film went through extensive reshoots to “improve” its third act and climax.
17. Guillermo Del Toro was heavily critical of the movie in the DVD commentary, citing issues with both the script and post-production visual effects. He claimed there was a lot of studio interference when making it.
18.. Despite this, Wesley Snipes has claimed this is his favorite movie of the trilogy. Which isn’t surprising, considering the infamously troubled production that was Blade: Trinity.
19. Remains the highest grossing movie of the Blade trilogy by over $20 million.
20. Despite receiving mostly mixed reviews, Roger Ebert gave Blade II 3 and a half stars out of 4 calling it a “rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons.”
Which of these did you already know? Which ones surprised you? Let us know in the comments!
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